VietNamNet Bridge – Just within two months, the Gia Lai province has released the decisions to revoke the licenses granted before to 13 hydropower plant projects because the projects are believed to have negative impacts on the environment.

Designed to have the capacity of 3MW only, the Dak SePay hydropower plant invested by Duc Long Gia Lai Group planned to use 26.4 hectares of forests. Meanwhile, the investor has been very slow in implementing the project. Getting license in 2010, the investor promised to complete the construction of the plan by October 2011. However, no construction item has been made so far.

Therefore, the project’s license has been revoked by the Gia Lai provincial authorities.

According to Ho Phuoc Thanh, Deputy Director of the Gia Lai Provincial Planning and Investment Department, of the five projects which had licenses revoked in July, Dak SePay was the one which would most seriously affect the forest area.

When asked why the local authorities allowed setting up a hydropower plant in the rich forest area of So Bai commune, Thanh said that the investor did not say clearly about the forest area to be taken away by the power plant project. However, later, the provincial Industry and Trade Department discovered that a vast area of the rich forests would be destroyed, if the project is implemented.

As such, the old forests in So Bai commune have luckily escaped the destruction of the projected hydropower plant. There one can see a lot of century-old trees with the diameters larger than one’s arms.

Nguyen Van Thinh, a local resident, who met reporters after he came to the forest to look for bee honey, affirmed there are precious wood and wild animals in the forests.

“The local people and forest rangers have been struggling hard to protect the old forests. They are the valuable things,” he said.

The decision by the local authorities on retaining the forest land has made local people happy.

Pham Van Xuyen in So Bai commune on July 25 organized a party after he heard that his 2 hectares of coffee cultivated land would not be taken to give place for the hydropower plant.

“We have been on a knife edge over the last two years. We have been living on the 2 hectares of coffee. If the land is taken away, what would we do to earn our living?” he said.

Showing the coffee garden, Xuyen said he expects to earn VND100 million this crop. “If the land is taken, I would get more than VND100 million this year. However, we would be hungry next year and the upcoming years, because we have no more land to cultivate,” he said.

Also according to Xuyen, many local people have been living on catching “cua dinh”, a special crab every night.

“If a power plant is set up here, the people would become jobless and they would not have money for rice to feed their children,” he said.

Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet in Ia Tchom commune, said she would not allow anyone to take any square meter of land. “The land here is gold for which no one can compensate,” she said.

Thien Nhien