The life of the last residents in Thu Thiem
Video: Duc Huy
Luong Dinh Cua Street (District 2, Ho Chi Minh City) is muddy after heavy rain in early May. Go through many more winding roads to reach an area with 5-6 old, dilapidated houses located among tall reeds.
A few hundred meters away, a large construction site with a series of roads and modern houses is being built in a plan to turn Thu Thiem into the most modern urban area in Southeast Asia.
The house of Ms. Hang and her husband is lonely among the reeds in Thu Thiem.
The house always locks 2-3 layers of doors because opening them means theft. Ms. Phung Thi Thu Hang and her husband said that in 2014 the forced clearance was suspended, her family and 5-6 other households within the boundaries of Binh ward.
Ms. Hang’s house, located on a plot of nearly 260 m2, is currently dilapidated and seriously degraded due to many years of not being allowed to repair it.
Her husband, Luong Van Thanh, has had laryngeal cancer and has been unable to speak for many years.
In 1997, one year after the Prime Minister approved the planning of Thu Thiem Urban Area, his and his wife’s house was determined by the District 2 government to be located in a residential area, outside the planning.
`Staying in Thu Thiem, we have been miserable for too many years, life is not convenient even though it is just over 2 km from the center of Saigon. Now that the incident is over, I just hope to exchange land to area 4.3
Mr. Hoang’s messy house in Thu Thiem.
Next door, Mr. Nguyen Huy Hoang (41 years old) and his wife live with their two small children in a house with patchy patches and walls covered with moss.
`This area has no utilities. We are known as city residents, but we are being abandoned. There are overgrown trees all around, and snakes and centipedes often crawl into the house, so I’m afraid it will affect my children. The electricity is damaged.
He said, in the past this area was quite spacious, complete with schools, markets, medical centers… Since the decision to reclaim land to build Thu Thiem Urban Area, people had to relocate and the situation is deserted.
Similarly, dozens of other households on Tran Nao street in Binh Khanh ward also said that their houses and land were not included in the planning but were forced by the government and their houses were demolished.
Ms. To Thi Phuong Thi (35 years old) and her husband have been living with relatives in Nhon Trach (Dong Nai) for 6 years, leaving their two children with their grandparents to look after, then running back and forth to complain.
`My family has two houses on 1,380 m2 of agricultural land. This area was compensated nearly 1.3 billion VND, but when it was forced, my husband and I did not receive the money. This is the incense land that my grandparents left behind.
Mr. Lung is holding a 1/5,000 scale Thu Thiem planning map in 1996. Photo: Son Hoa.
And Mr. Le Van Lung has a 1,000 m2 house right at the intersection of Tran Nao – Luong Dinh Cua, which used to be rented as a bank headquarters and has now been demolished.
Mr. Lung is holding a map that is said to be the 1/5,000 planning of Thu Thiem Urban Area in 1996. The map has the stamp of the Chief Architect of Ho Chi Minh City at that time, Mr. Le Van Nam, and the city’s Department of Construction.
He affirmed that this is a `twin` map of the Ho Chi Minh City map submitted to the Prime Minister and approved as Thu Thiem Urban Area 22 years ago.
`Meanwhile, the land acquisition map draws lines that completely destroy An Khanh ward and also lose Binh An and Binh Khanh residential areas. This is an act of deliberately changing the nature of the 1/5,000 planning and because
People and authorities understand planning documents differently
Complaints related to compensation and liberation of Thu Thiem Urban Area have been going on for more than ten years.
During a meeting with 63 Thu Thiem households in mid-2016, Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong said that people and authorities have different understandings of project planning documents and evidence.
In November 2017, Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh requested the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City and the Ministry of Construction to check archived records to determine whether or not there is a 1/5,000 scale planning map of Thu Thiem Urban Area attached to Decision 367.
These two units coordinate with the Government Inspectorate and the Ministry of Natural Resources to review the area of land recovered from the people, clarify whether or not it is in the planning, to respond and resolve.
Located on the East bank of the Saigon River, opposite District 1, Thu Thiem Urban Area has a total area of 657 hectares and is planned to be the modern and expanded center of Ho Chi Minh City.
To invest in building this super project, the city spent 10 years clearing almost the entire Thu Thiem peninsula, about 15,000 households were relocated.
According to the announcement at the end of 2017, the price of land in front of Tran Nao street is up to 170 million VND per square meter, other places are more than 140 million VND.