Households confront grim outlook from mining activity

Hundreds of houses in Phu Tho Province's Thanh Ba District are cracking and collapsing due to unusual stone mining activities by a local company.

Roads collapsed from stone mining activities 

Over 400 households in Ninh Dan Commune are affected by this exploitation, and dozens of houses are badly damaged, but they've received little compensation from Song Thao Stone Mining Company.

On August 23, a loud noise disturbed the whole neighbourhood. Duong Thi Mau, a local, was surprised to see a huge hole appear in front of her house. Song Thao Company had sent 18 trucks to fill the hole, however, the hole,  eight meters in diameter and 10 meters deep, appeared again three days later.

Even though many people tried to escape the danger areas, Mau's family was forced to stay in their house, albeit with cracks in the walls and a huge hole outside, because they do not have sufficient funds for a new one. Recently, Mau's son borrowed a lot of money to build a house next to hers and this house has already developed cracks. Song Thao Company compensated him with VND250 million (USD12,000), which only covers the debt.

"My heart skips a beat whenever they blow anything up." she said.

  Hole appear near the houses

The company has helped to evacuate 85 households, however, because the compensation from Song Thao is  always VND250 million, maximum, this means 27 households in the area who want to leave are unable to do so.. For example, Le Anh Tao's family had borrowed and spent VND2billion to build a house which later collapsed, but they were only compensated with VND250 million.

 Houses suffer from cracks

A pond of hundreds of square meters completely dried up after just one night. Meanwhile, the family of Bach Quang Vu had to sleep outdoors because their floor collapsed.

In addition, roads in the area also subsided, threatening traffic safety.

Nguyen Dinh Khang, chairman of Ninh Dan People's Committee said, "About a year ago, Song Thao Company started to use mines to blow up large areas causing severe consequences."

Various relevant agencies are investigating.