The Construction Limited Company No.9 has made the Dakrong River deformed since it was licensed to exploit gold in the Dakrong District, the central province of Quang Tri in November.
Dakrong River in central province of Quang Tri
The river section through Huc Nghi Commune has been badly polluted; as mining work is performed daily from 7am to 10pm.
Dozens of people from Van Kieu commune gathered at the river section to show their displeasure about the company’s operations on December 13.
Ho Van Lien, a local citizen, said the commune has 291 households, with over half of them being very poor. Their livelihoods relied on farming the fields and sometimes, in their spare time, they did ‘sift for gold’ in the river.
However, now they are prohibited to search for gold by the Huc Nghi Commune People’s Committee. The Construction Company No.9 promised that they would assist the poorer household’s with food. However, so far, the company has not fulfilled this duty.
A reporter from Sai Gon Giai Phong newspaper, witness thousands of tons of soil, stone piles and trenches dumped into the riverbed. A section of the Ho Chi Minh Highway, which goes through the community, has always been eroded by river water. This is likely to get much worse as the mining continues.
Le Phuoc Chuong, deputy head of Department of Natural Resources and Environment in Dakrong District, said the construction company no.9’s operation on the river has been suspended, for violating environmental regulations.
In a commitment, with the Quang Tri Province People’s Committee, the company was asked to take care of the environment while digging for gold. However, it has just focused on the exploitation of gold and has been careless with how it disposes the sand and soil, dug out from mine.
Additionally, the company was only allowed to use two excavators, but it has been found that over seven excavators have been in operation at the site.
In trying to explain these discrepancies, regarding mining on the site, company director Truong Duc Hai said, that an hydropower plant is to be built there in 2015 and as a result gold exploration had to be ‘speeded up’.