Hundreds of people showed their dismay at the delay of repairing broken electricity cables by blocking Provincial Road No. 533 with power poles.
Residents of Nghe An Province are still waiting for their power to be restored since tropical storm number 3 hit over a week ago.
Power poles were placed in the middle of the road
The third tropical storm had knocked down numerous power poles in Thanh Long Commune, Thanh Chuong District, Nghe An Province, causing large-scale power failures. As a result, residents have not had electricity for their production and daily activities and their children haven’t had electricity in their schools.
The Thanh Chuong based Electricity Branch of Vietnam Electricity Corporation has yet to restore power in the area. On August 29, some were so angry that they placed dozens of power poles across the middle of Provincial Road No. 533, saying they would remove these power poles when they had electricity again.
Nguyen Van Phung, living in Hamlet 4 explained that, “It’s unacceptable. Power poles here were knocked down over a week ago; the electricity agency did nothing. We did not have water or electricity and we cannot go on like this.”
The action of these civilians has caused serious traffic jams on Provincial Road No. 533. Many drivers were irritated because they had to find another way to go but did not dare to raise a voice as many angry protesters had gathered.
Tran Van Cuong, living at Hamlet 5 said, “If we pay electricity fees one day late, we are charged VND30,000 ($1.5). Now we have not had power for nearly 10 days but they do nothing. At least they should come here and check then tell us when we would have power again.”
Le Thanh Mai, Manager of the Thanh Chuong based Electricity Branch of Vietnam Electricity Corporation said, “After being aware about the action of people here, we sent 20 officers to discuss the issue. On the morning of August 30, basically, people had calmed down and order was restored. Currently, we have been repairing broken electricity cables and possibly power will be back on August 31.”
After the big storm, power has yet to be restored to many other areas in Nghe An Province as well.
