Illegal houses on top of a citadel wall section (Photo: VNA) Thua Thien-Hue (VNA) - Authorities of thecentral Hue city have announced plans to evacuate 4,200 families out of thecitadel walls and buildings in an attempt to stop illegal lodging on relics.
The People’s Council of Thua Thien-Hue Province early this week approved theevacuation plan designed by the local People’s Committee.
Following the approved plan, the evacuation of 4,200 families living illegally onrelics built during the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1945) in the city will take placein two stages. The first starts this year and is expected to be complete in2021, removing 2,938 families from on and around the citadel walls and relocatingthem.
The second stage will take place in 2022 to 2025, attempting to evacuate 1,263 householdsfrom the relics of Tinh Tam Lake, Hoc Hai Lake, Xa Tac Ritual Platform, thebuildings of Kham Thien Giam, Xien Vo Tu, Tran Binh Dai and canals around thecitadel.
The council approved a budget of 2.7 trillion VND (118 million USD) forevacuation compensation and 1.4 trillion VND (59 million USD) for resettlement.The total budget of more than 4 trillion VND comes from the central Government,local government and loans from the national treasury. The central Governmentwill provide funds for evacuation compensation.
Construction on two sites of 9.9ha of land designated for resettlement is goingon in Huong So, an outskirts ward of the city. A total 523 families willbe removed this year.
Four decades ago, people began living in the relics, mainly the wall systemrunning around the citadel. They occupied the walls in several ways. Themajority of them broke part of the wall to make entrance alleys and builtconcrete structures on the top of the walls for housing. Others constructedtemporary houses on top of the walls. Others made use of collapsed sections,clearing the debris for housing or demolishing the wall themselves to constructhomes.
The upheaval after the American War and controversyover the role of the Nguyen Dynasty in Vietnamese history were the main causes to theillegal housing and lodging started since 1975. Another surge of illegallodging taken place in 1999 after many locals lost their home and boats due toa historic flood occurred in the province.
Moving the families was first mooted in1993, when all relics built by the dynasty in Hue were recognised as worldcultural heritage sites by UNESCO.
Thai Cong Nguyen, former director of HueMonuments Conservation Centre, the local government body managing all relicsbuilt by the dynasty in the province, said local authorities at that timeignored his proposal on evacuation due to the wrong perception of the monarchicrole.
Researcher Phan Tan To added that conservation at that time was ignored. Theresearchers believed that if the evacuation was made in 1993, the cost forthe work would be much lower and the relics would be well conserved as well.
Illegal residents on the relics in largenumber have caused damage and subsidence to the wall. Wastewater and farmingactivities on the top of the wall have also caused erosion.-VNA
