Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Tran Nam yesterday asked Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta provinces to speed up work on construction of housing foundations, dykes and infrastructure for flood-proof residential clusters.
Reviewing the results of a national programme on building flood-proof residential clusters in the Delta, Nam said residents living in the clusters had been protected from rising floodwaters in the Delta in the past 10 years.
Nam said the construction of clusters in low-lying areas should be completed on schedule so the people in affected areas could relocate in 2013, as scheduled in the second phase of the programme.
However, the process of building flood-proof residential clusters in provinces under the second phase has been slow, while the provincial authorities said it was due to a capital shortage.
Under the second phase (2008-13), the programme intends to build 178 flood-proof residential clusters with total investment of more than VND3.283 trillion (USD 157.8 million). At least VND1.398 trillion (USD67.2 million) from the central and province budgets and VND1.885 trillion (USD90.6 million) from bank loans would be given.
However, capital allocation has been slow. There is a lack of VND582 billion (USD27.98 million) from the State budget and more than VND842 billion (USD40.48 million) from bank loans have not been implemented yet.
Furthermore, price volatility has led to an increase in the current investment capital, much higher than the earlier calculated capital, especially for site clearance and construction investment.
The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) has asked province to submit a periodic report on expenses and specific coming plans in order to ensure effective use of investment capital.
The MPI said the provinces should get capital for building dykes from the Government\'s Flood and Storm Preparedness and Prevention Fund and capital for infrastructure should be collected from businesses.
A representative of the Government Office said the Government would solve a capital shortage next year.
After the cluster completion, localities should manage and balance the local budget annually for maintenance.
Nam said localities should not increase expenses by decreasing the scale of cluster projects.
Attending were officials of the Ministry of Construction, and provincial authorities from An Giang, Kien Giang, Dong Thap, Can Tho, Vinh Long, Tien Giang, and Long An provinces.