Riverside households to relocate
Vientiane Times, Khonesavanh Latsaphao
(Latest Update September 30 , 2008)
Vientiane authorities will relocate 146 households along the Mekong River in Sikhottabong district because of the risk of the riverbank collapsing, Vientiane Vice Mayor Somvandy Nathavong said yesterday.
District authorities have set aside eight hectares of land in Nongniew village in the same district for the relocation of the households, he said.
Residents are happy with the arrangements and will begin moving in November, Mr Somvandy said.
To prevent erosion, the construction of an embankment will begin in January next year, between Khounta-tha and Dankham villages, a distance of about 7 kilometres.
The project is expected to cost a total of US$40 million. The Lao government has been issued a low-interest loan of about US$30 million from the government of the Republic of Korea to finance the project.
The relocation of the households is necessary because they are presently in areas that are susceptible to erosion, Deputy Governor of Sikhottabong district Mr Thongthip Sivixay said.
Some riverbank areas have eroded all the way to the edge of the road, he said.
The Mekong River normally floods every year, but in August this year extensive flooding occurred in Laos , Thailand , Cambodia and Vietnam .
Almost 400,000 sandbags were positioned along the riverbank in four Vientiane districts as the rapid rise of the Mekong prompted communities to unite and act in defence of their capital.
The authorities successfully stopped the water from breaching the city centre, but many parts of Laos that had no sandbag barricade were inundated by floodwater.
The flooding inflicted damage worth hundreds of billions of kip, destroying farmland, irrigation systems, roads, schools and houses.
Erosion is caused by many factors such as heavy rainfall, clearing of vegetation along the river and the extraction of sand and gravel. All of these lead to the increased erosion of unprotected riverbanks during high flow periods, Mr Thongthip said.
The Mekong River flows more than 4,800 km from its source on the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau in China , to where it runs into the South China Sea in Vietnam .
It passes through the six countries of China , Laos , Vietnam , Thailand , Myanmar and Cambodia . An estimated 60 million people live along the river. |
