Vexed municipal authorities are hoping much tougher actions in thecoming two months against those weakening the city's dike system willmake some headway against rampant violations.
Deputy mayor TranXuan Viet called for classification of violations into "lesscomplicated" and "complicated" categories so that they can be addressedmore efficiently by different local administrations.
The nationin general and the capital city in particular have sufferedlong-standing abuse of the dike system. People build houses, permanentand temporary, on dikes, steal sand from their base, causing erosion,and ply heavy trucks carrying sand stolen from the river bed, damagingdike roads.
Ha Duc Trung, Deputy Director of the municipaldepartment of agriculture and rural development, which manages dikes,canals and rivers, told a conference last week that over the last fiveyears, just one-third (555) out of the 1,690 dike breaches discoveredwere handled.
This only encouraged more people to break therules, and in several cases, violators have even attacked officials oflaw enforcement agencies.
Nguyen Chi Vien, Vice Chairman of the Ung Hoa People's Committee, said his district shared the capital city's common woes.
Since2010, district authorities had discovered more than 700 violations onthe dyke, but just 290 cases had been dealt with so far, he said.
Worse,the cases dealt with were trivial, involving temporary houses or tents,while permanent houses continued to stand "somehow".
Doan TrungKinh, General Director of Song Day Irrigation Co. Ltd., asserted thatlocal authorities were well aware of the violations, but were probablydiscouraged or half-hearted about taking strong action because theviolators were "having connections."
He proposed that prohibition signs are planted along dikes or rivers to deter further violations.
Arepresentative from the city Inspectorate suggested that the city setsup a "reward fund" for people who tip authorities off about neighboursor others beginning any illegal construction work on the dike orencroach into the river to "reclaim" it for housing.
Leaders of localities where many violations occur should be publicly identified and held to account, the inspector said.
Hanoi has 626km of dikes running through 26 of its 30 districts. It has a total of 11,412 rivers and irrigation canals.-VNA
Deputy mayor TranXuan Viet called for classification of violations into "lesscomplicated" and "complicated" categories so that they can be addressedmore efficiently by different local administrations.
The nationin general and the capital city in particular have sufferedlong-standing abuse of the dike system. People build houses, permanentand temporary, on dikes, steal sand from their base, causing erosion,and ply heavy trucks carrying sand stolen from the river bed, damagingdike roads.
Ha Duc Trung, Deputy Director of the municipaldepartment of agriculture and rural development, which manages dikes,canals and rivers, told a conference last week that over the last fiveyears, just one-third (555) out of the 1,690 dike breaches discoveredwere handled.
This only encouraged more people to break therules, and in several cases, violators have even attacked officials oflaw enforcement agencies.
Nguyen Chi Vien, Vice Chairman of the Ung Hoa People's Committee, said his district shared the capital city's common woes.
Since2010, district authorities had discovered more than 700 violations onthe dyke, but just 290 cases had been dealt with so far, he said.
Worse,the cases dealt with were trivial, involving temporary houses or tents,while permanent houses continued to stand "somehow".
Doan TrungKinh, General Director of Song Day Irrigation Co. Ltd., asserted thatlocal authorities were well aware of the violations, but were probablydiscouraged or half-hearted about taking strong action because theviolators were "having connections."
He proposed that prohibition signs are planted along dikes or rivers to deter further violations.
Arepresentative from the city Inspectorate suggested that the city setsup a "reward fund" for people who tip authorities off about neighboursor others beginning any illegal construction work on the dike orencroach into the river to "reclaim" it for housing.
Leaders of localities where many violations occur should be publicly identified and held to account, the inspector said.
Hanoi has 626km of dikes running through 26 of its 30 districts. It has a total of 11,412 rivers and irrigation canals.-VNA
