For the last several years, farmer Bach Cong Thiem from northern Hoa Binh Province has had to carry his load of bananas on foot for three hours to sell at a nearby market during harvest seasons.
The main road to the market, which is only two kilometers long, has been blocked since 2004 due to the construction of a golf course located in Lam Son Commune, Luong Son District.
More than 300 hectares of residential spaces and farmlands was also cleared the same year to make way for the 54-hole Phuong Hoang golf course project backed by South Korea’s Charmvit Group.
Since then, more than 300 households from Doc Phan, Rong Tam, Rong Vong, Rong Can and Dong Gao villages in the vicinity have faced a host of problems, including pollution, water shortage, unemployment and transport problems.
* Cut off
The golf course, which was zoned squarely between Thung Dau Village and Lam Son Commune’s center, has forced many villagers to take long detours whenever they need to go somewhere.
The office manager of the provincial People’s Committee, Nguyen Quang Hai, said many travel problems have arisen since the golf course project broke ground but the investor has failed to construct substitute routes for affected villagers.
“The village has become an isolated place,” said head of Thung Dau Village Nguyen Xuan Loc. “We have to travel around the golf course perimeter for nearly 10 kilometers to get to the main road. It’s really hard for villagers who often go on foot carrying products to sell in the commune center.”
Loc also said many local children have quit school because it now takes up to three hours to walk there.
“Students with morning classes would have to wake up at around 3 a.m. to go to school,” he said. “Those taking afternoon classes would arrive home at around 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.”
Meanwhile, many villagers who had been resettled near the commune center are forced to use the meandering footpath to get back to their farms.
Farmer Le Trung Dung of Rong Vong Village in Lam Son Commune said he had abandoned his timber area because he couldn’t carry the logs for such long distance.
“Many farmers have invested a lot of money in their farms but can’t carry their harvests to sell,” Dung said. “They are now facing bankruptcy.”
Some farmers said they have sneak through perimeter fences to get on the shorter old road they used to take, but they will lose their farm produce if the golf course guards detect.
* Polluted environment
Local villagers have also suffered a chronic water shortage since the construction of the golf course due to water from nearby streams becoming contaminated by pesticides used to maintain the course’s grass.
A research by Thanh Nien found that pesticide chemicals have seeped into several residential areas and poisoned nearby water sources.
Residents, meanwhile, have long complained of the pesticide smell emanating from streams in the area.
“The provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment has conducted research on pollution in the area, but has yet to announce the results,” said local Nguyen Xuan Hoang of Rong Tam Village. “We are afraid of getting cancer from using the pesticide-contaminated water.”
Hoang Thi Thuan, a resident of a resettlement area in Rong Tam Village, said the investor hasn’t come through on the promise to supply sufficient clean water for locals.
“The water being pumped to residential areas was actually also used to irrigate the course’s grass,” Thuan said. “I know for sure because I used to work at the golf course.”
Many villagers consequently have had to build their own pipe systems to get water from streams some four kilometers away.
An official from Lam Son Commune said a project to supply clean water to affected villagers had begun in 2005 but was suspended for unclear reasons.
* Joblessness and crimes
Vice Chairwoman of Lam Son Commune’s People’s Committee Nguyen Thi Hong Nhinh said the majority of villagers have become unemployed after losing their farmland to the golf course project.
“Before launching the project, the investor promised to create alternative jobs for local farmers,” Nhinh said. “However, only 50 to 70 members out of around 3,000 villagers have gained jobs with the project.”
Villager Thuan said she and her husband used to work at the golf course, but low salary and hard working conditions forced them, along with many other workers, to quit.
Nhinh said local authorities have held some training courses but failed to help farmers switch to new occupations.
Local residents also said they weren’t given proper advice on what to do with the money they received from land compensation.
A resident said after getting the compensation, residents from Lam Son Commune bought up to 300 motorbikes in just one day.
“The villagers now are empty handed after the compensation money was spent buying motorbikes and building new houses,” he said. “They don’t have farmland to earn a living anymore.”
Another resident said thefts have been rampant in the resettlement areas since the construction of the golf course.
“Many households have had to erect fences around their properties,” he said.
* No solution in sight
The office manager of the provincial People’s Committee, Hai, said three other projects to build golf courses are in the works.
However, one project located in Lac Thuy District’s Dong Tam Commune was recently suspended due to heavy protests from local residents after the investor cut down around two hectares of protected forest.
STOP SIGN:
The government early last month suspended giving out licenses for new golf courses in an effort to preserve land for rice cultivation and protect poor farmers.
A recent report by the Ministry of Planning and Investment said 13 golf courses have been licensed and eight others approved in principle nationwide.
Another 123 golf courses are part of real estate projects which are presently underway or seeking authorization, the ministry said. Agricultural land earmarked for developing those 144 golf courses amount to an area of around 6,000 hectares, including 1,630 hectares of paddy-cultivating land, the report said.
Many golf courses have swallowed large swaths of agricultural lands in the northern provinces of Ha Tay, Hung Yen, and Thai Nguyen, in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong and Long An Province in the south, the report said.