VietNamNet Bridge – Project investors, contractors and sub-contractors of a dredging project in the Cua Dai Estuary are suspected of “serious violations” with a large volume of sand gone “missing.”

A scale model of the Da Phuoc Urban Project on display at the Da Nang Administrative Centre.

Quang Nam’s Public Security and Transport departments are collaborating with Hoi An City and relevant agencies in investigating reports of illegal sand mining and transport from the Cua Dai Beach.

The provincial head of secretariat, Nguyen Hong Quang told Viet Nam News yesterday that the final conclusions on the sand mining and shipping case will be released soon.

Quang said the project owners, contractors and sub-contractors had committed grave violations in implementing the Cua Dai estuary dredging project.

The project, which began in January, aimed to dredge 70,000 cubic metres of sand from the Cua Dai estuary to facilitate passage of boats and re-sanding the badly eroded Cua Dai Beach.

However, just 16,500 cubic metres had been pumped onto the Cua Dai beach between January and March 25, and the remaining 50,000 cubic metres are “missing.”

Nguyen Van Dung, Chairman of Hoi An People’s Committee, also said that just a fifth of the contracted volume of sand had been deposited on the beach since January.

Dung said the city had suspended the project in order to find where the huge volume of nearly 50,000 cubic metres of sand had gone.

According to local fishermen, 18 ships were involved in digging sand at the Cua Dai Estuary and transporting it to the Cua Dai Beach, but some vessels had illegally shipped sand to another project in Da Nang City.

A source who wished to remain anonymous also told Viet Nam News that a huge contract had been signed by two companies – the Tuan Sinh Company and Trung Nam company – to mine sand from the Cua Dai Estuary and deliver it to the sea embankment of the Da Phuoc International Urban project in Da Nang.

The contract assigned Tuan Sinh to dredge and transport a million tonnes of sand from the estuary in Quang Nam Province to the Da Phuoc Urban project. The contract was worth VND60 billion (US$2.65 million).

The Nam Dinh-based Tuan Sinh company, which was also involved in the project to dredge the Cua Dai Estuary and re-sand the Cua Dai Beach, had used five to 10 ships of 800 cubic metres capacity each to carry sand from February 20 onwards.

In a statement last week, Da Nang City’s Department of Construction said it has decided to suspend work on the coastal Da Phuoc Uban Project in downtown Hai Chau District. It cited an incomplete environmental assessment report as one of the reasons, as also the need to investigate the use of sand by the project.

The urban development, planned on 175.9ha on Nguyen Tat Thanh Street, has been said to be the biggest such project in central Viet Nam covering a large sea embankment area.

Investigators are now trying to find out how much sand had been transported and pumped for the Da Phuoc Urban project’s sea embankment between February and March.

According to Hoi An People’s Committee, the dredging of Cua Dai Estuary was seen as an urgent measure taken to save the Cua Dai Beach from erosion after the failure of many others that were tried between 2011-2015.

A ship dredges sand from the Cua Dai Estuary, Quang Nam Province.

Many experts had suggested that “beach nourishment” in combination with other measures would help stem erosion of Cua Dai Beach in the short-term.

A 20ha area of Cua Dai Beach, 5km from Hoi An, was washed away between 2009-2014.

A 1,100m Geotube sandbag dyke, positioned under the water 60m off the beach, could not prevent big waves from crashing onto the beach and washing the sand away.

More than VND80 billion (US$3.6 million) was spent on trying to protect the beach between 2009-2014.

Last year, the Agency for Development of France (AFD) agreed to conduct a 136,000 euro ($327,000) feasibility study of beach nourishment to ascertain its effectiveness as a sustainable protective measure for Cua Dai Beach.

VNS