In Huong Viet commune, Huong Hoa district, since the historic flood in 2020, despite many efforts to overcome it, people's agricultural reproduction still faces many obstacles because the land area is quite large. Currently, the worry about landslides causing loss of land, affecting the lives of people in Huong Viet commune is still present every rainy season.

A former rice cultivation area of ​​Ta Rung village, Huong Viet commune, Huong Hoa district was completely covered by soil and rocks after the 2020 flood, and cannot be restored for production - Photo: D.V

After the historic flood in 2020, all 8 sao of Mr. Ho Van Lo's rice fields in the La Am production area of ​​Ta Rung village, Huong Viet commune were covered by landslides. Mr. Lo and his family have made efforts to level some fields for re-production, but the heavily covered fields have made it impossible for his family to grow rice or other crops in recent seasons.

Pointing to his family's production land in the La Am area, Mr. Lo said: "In this area, rocks and soil have filled all the rice fields of the households in the village. The area of ​​filled land that cannot be reclaimed must be left fallow. People are worried that the remaining fields in the area will continue to be washed away and buried by floods if there is no solution to prevent landslides soon. Production land is already limited, and now there is a risk of being lost, so we are very worried."

Ho Van Duong's family in Ta Rung village has 3 sao of rice fields. After the historic flood, more than 1 sao was completely silted up. The remaining 2 sao were less silted up but farming was also less effective due to the reduced fertility of the soil. "Although it is difficult, my family still tries to improve the fields for farming to proactively provide food. To ensure income to take care of life, my family has to switch to investing in raising goats and cows," said Duong.

According to Ta Rung Village Chief Ho Ngoc Van, the entire village has an area of ​​rice and crops that accounts for about 1/3 of the area of ​​Huong Viet commune. Of which, the total area of ​​wet rice cultivation in the entire village is 12 hectares, but the 2020 flood has heavily silted up (an average silting up of nearly 2 meters) about 10 hectares.

“Up to now, our village has only restored more than 20 sao of the total silted area to reproduce rice production. The remaining heavily silted area is also full of sand and gravel, so it is difficult to cultivate other crops,” said Mr. Van.

The old silted production land area has not been restored yet, so the risk of further landslides causing loss of land in the La Am area of ​​Ta Rung village still exists. Mr. Van said, facing the risk of losing production land when annual floods cause landslides and encroachment on rice fields, the people of Ta Rung village have petitioned their superiors to pay attention to building embankments in the La Am area to prevent floodwaters from eroding the people's rice fields.

In Huong Viet commune, in addition to Ta Rung village, Xa Dung village also has a large agricultural production area that has been silted up due to floods, affecting production and people's lives. Support is needed to restore and convert livelihood models...

Huong Viet Commune has nearly 340 households, of which 98% are Van Kieu ethnic people. The whole commune has a natural area of ​​nearly 6,000 hectares, of which agricultural land accounts for nearly 5,300 hectares. However, due to complex terrain, mainly hills, streams, and difficult transportation, especially in the rainy season, the cultivated land only reaches about 300 hectares.

Chairman of Huong Viet Commune People's Committee Ho Van Sinh said that the 2020 flood had heavily silted up more than 70% of the rice growing area and 30% of the vegetable growing area of ​​the entire commune. Up to now, the risk of further loss of productive land due to flood and landslides in the commune is still constant.

“Land is a very important means of production for the people of Huong Viet commune. Therefore, the local government hopes that the superiors will soon pay attention to investing in building a flood protection embankment system in the La Am area to preserve production land for the people,” Mr. Sinh suggested.

Through information from the People's Committee of Huong Hoa district, it is known that in the immediate future, the district will prioritize resources for investment in building embankments to prevent landslides in residential areas that are at risk of affecting people's lives. As for investment in building embankments to prevent floods in the La Am area to serve production, due to the need for a large amount of funding, the district will consider and balance the budget when conditions permit.

Hieu Giang