The sea boundary of Ha Long – Cam Pha has a length of 18.7km, started in September 2019 and passes through the wards of Hong Ha, Ha Tu, Ha Phong (Ha Long City) and Quang Hanh (Cam Pha City). The section through Cam Pha city with a length of nearly 10km has basically completed the construction of the foundation, asphalt carpeting, lighting, etc. The contractor is expanding the roadbed to adjust 6 lanes. The section through Ha Long City has been implemented since March 2020, but the road foundation has been basically completed. Bridge 2 over Lo Phong stream (Ha Phong ward, Ha Long city) with a length of 80m has completed the main items, the contractor is preparing to construct the bridge deck. In the mountain tunnel category, the contractor is conducting 4 consecutive excavations in both directions at the same time. Up to now, both tunnels have dug 135/470m, it is expected to open the tunnel until July 15. Tunnel door through the mountain side of Ha Long city. For 4km at sea, the contractor is actively constructing the roadbed, it is expected that in August 2021, the foundation will be completed to move to the finishing stage and asphalt pavement. Do Phuong

Daily cooking has never been so simple. How to make a meal full of nutrients and delicious to suit the family’s taste is what causes many housewives a headache. Loan Tran’s account shared a tray of homemade rice for the family on a summer day on social networks, attracting more than 15,000 interactions. While the epidemic is complicated, cooking at home is even more important, so taking care of family meals is focused on many people. Ms. Loan Tran shared: “This season, it is easiest to eat crab and eggplant soup, boiled water spinach, and add a plate of roasted or boiled meat.” The dishes of these housewives are quite simple from the way of processing and suitable for hot summer days. Ms. Loan Tran shared: “This season, I always have to eat rice with a bowl of coffee to feel good. My family likes to eat vegetables, so in addition to protein, we always have soup and a plate of stir-fried vegetables.” Crab and gourd soup, deep-fried goby, rim tofu is not too difficult to cook but still ensures full nutrition for a family meal. The combination of juicy crab gourd soup with crispy goby fish is quite delicious. The next suggestion for lunch is vermicelli with boiled meat. Thinly sliced ​​boiled meat, enjoy with vermicelli, fried beans, cucumber, raw vegetables bring great taste. You should choose the boiled meat in harmony between lean and fat to eat without getting bored. Many Vietnamese families, despite being busy, still decide to cook at home. This is a delicious, cheap, and healthy option during a complicated epidemic. Housewives should change the menu variety so that the meal is not boring. On weekends, you can go to the kitchen to prepare for the whole family more sophisticated dishes such as fish noodles, pho…

Khanh Hoa prepares building materials

Mr. Nguyen Van Dan, Director of the Department of Transport – Transport (MOT) of Khanh Hoa province, said that this Department, together with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and the districts and towns with the highway passing through, are urgently reviewing. , report and propose licensing of material mines for construction as soon as the North – South expressway section passes Khanh Hoa expected in the second quarter of 2021.

According to calculations, the North – South expressway project Nha Trang – Cam Lam section needs more than 3 million cubic meters of land for leveling; the section of Cam Lam – Vinh Hao, requires 200,000 m3 of soil for embankment. In addition, the project also needs a large amount of stone for the production of hot asphalt concrete on the road surface. With such a great demand, the project investors are worried about the source of materials during the construction process.

To proactively source materials, from March 2020, the Project Management Board of Ho Chi Minh Road sent a document to the People’s Committee of Khanh Hoa province on the agreement on a material mine, landfill site. According to Mr. Nguyen Van Dan, raw materials for the construction of the North-South expressway through Khanh Hoa are relatively abundant. “The People’s Committee of Khanh Hoa province has approved the quarries, sand for common building materials and land mines for landfilling, which have been issued with a valid mineral mining license by the PPC. has been approved by the Provincial People’s Committee, requesting the Project Management Board of Ho Chi Minh Road to update the above mineral mines to implement the regulations “, Mr. Dan said.

As for the earth, stone, and sand mines used to serve the project without environmental records, the mine owners must make an environmental impact assessment report and submit it to the Provincial People’s Committee for appraisal and approval; the quarry areas, sand as common building materials and land mines used for leveling have not been licensed for exploitation, assign the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to coordinate with relevant units to review and consult to report to the Provincial People’s Committee for handling and settlement.

According to Mr. Le Thanh Binh, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh Road Project Management Board (Ministry of Transport), up to this point, the North-South Expressway Project through Khanh Hoa province has basically completed the liberation. ground; Only a few jobs related to the relocation of technical infrastructure are still being carried out.

Recently, in the meeting with the leaders of Khanh Hoa Provincial People’s Committee, Mr. Le Anh Tuan, Deputy Minister of Transport, also proposed Khanh Hoa Provincial People’s Committee to create material sources, stabilize material prices during implementation, avoid cases. resources are scarce, prices are pushed up.

Binh Dinh and Quang Ngai have agreed the route plan

While the North-South expressway through Khanh Hoa was about to be started, Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh have completed the route plan.

Mr. Nguyen Phong, Director of Quang Ngai Department of Transport, said that the locality has completed the planning of the route and is agreed by the Ministry of Transport, including the starting point at km130 + 800 expressways of Da Nang – Quang Ngai, in Nghia Dien commune (district Tu Nghia, Quang Ngai province) and the end point intersects Provincial Highway 629, in Bong Son town (Hoai Nhon, Binh Dinh).

On the Binh Dinh province side, Mr. Nguyen Tu Cong Hoang, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee said that the North-South expressway project through Binh Dinh province was agreed by the Ministry of Transport to be divided into 3 component projects, including: Quang Ngai – Hoai Nhon Project, Hoai Nhon – Quy Nhon Project and Quy Nhon – Tuy Hoa Project (Phu Yen Province).

“There are two directions presented to the leaders of the province and the Ministry of Transport. In which, option 1 builds a route to the east (about 3-4 km from National Highway 1), 110 km long and option 2 builds a western direction (about 12-35 km from National Highway 1) 113 km long. “, Mr. Hoang said.

Through analysis, the two investment plans have their own advantages and disadvantages. However, if done according to option 1, the distance between the expressway to economic zones, industrial clusters and city center. Quy Nhon will be closer, convenient to connect traffic, promote the development of industries in many fields, create a driving force for socio-economic development.

“Option 1 is in line with the planning and development orientation of Binh Dinh to 2035, with a vision to 2050. Therefore, Binh Dinh chooses the plan to build the North-South expressway across the area according to the direction of the Eastern route “, Mr. Hoang emphasized.

According to Deputy Minister of Transport Le Anh Tuan, the fact that Quang Ngai has agreed on the route is an important premise for the project to continue the implementation steps. As for Binh Dinh, the Ministry of Transport has asked the province to continue to work closely with the consultant and the Ministry of Transport to survey the entire North-South expressway through the area, at the same time providing more data related to the locality. project selected by the province.

“Trees soaked in water for 20 days cannot survive,” said landscape planner Ngo Anh Dao, who has planted dull forests along the 650m long shore of Triem Tay and neighboring Cam Kim commune since 2018. Sad is sad, she said, but this is the law of nature.

The cork tree is the body

According to TS. Ngo Anh Dao is “a pioneer tree and a sacrifice for the posterior generation behind.” As a result, although the number of poor trees is only 1/3, the riverbank of Trem Tay village does not erode like in the previous years when floods came.

This poor forest is the outermost layer of an ecological soft embankment coping with landslide. Anh Dao put it to the test at her farm An Nhien after the historic flood in 2017 seeped 12ha of the riverbank area. Before the embankment was constructed, each time the flood came, the banks of the Trem Tay River would recede more than ten meters deep and many villagers determined that they would have to leave sooner or later.

TS. Ngo Anh Dao, the concept designer of the ecological embankment. Photo: Yen Duong

The ecological soft embankment model is the result of many years of observation and research by TS. Anh Dao goes downstream of Thu Bon river. She does not consider this as a new invention but simply a process of restoring indigenous ecosystems.

“This is a very sensitive and fragile area,” said the female landscape planner, when she was under pressure from the water pouring in from the Truong Son mountain range, and the pressure from waves and storms. Just comparing the map of Thu Bon river basin from 1984 with the present, anyone can recognize the appearance, swelling and disappearance of floating dunes. If more than 30 years ago, there were four large and small sand dunes in front of Trem Tay, over time, the side of the mudslide, now they have formed a large dune deviating to the north, causing the flow from upstream to crash into the bank of Trem Tay village and the neighboring Cam Kim commune. Therefore, every time the flood comes, the Trem Tay bank will slide and the other sand dune bank accretes.

The villagers of Trem Tay seem to be too familiar with this harsh law of nature. At the age of 54, Pham Duoc had to move his house twice despite being born and raised in this village. His first home was at the head of the village but by the age of twenty, he was forced to move to the middle of the village. In 2009, the commune authorities urged him to continue to move, but because of “comfortable housing, a garden, a chicken”, he decided to stay. However, after the historic flood in 2017, when the water flooded to 1.6 meters deep, he got scared and decided to demolish the house, sell the land and move to his current home at the end of the village.

“I wanted to build a house to leave for the children, so I accepted it,” he was told. Each time like that, he “is not sad” because “has to accept it.”

Also because of the desire to keep the village and have a passion for planting trees, this builder began to work as TS’s farm housekeeper. Anh Dao from 2016 on a piece of land at the end of the village abandoned because some people have retreated inland like Mr. Can. Others, especially the young, have quit farming because their rice land is either no longer available or salty, and go to work on tourism in Hoi An or Da Nang.

On this wasteland, Mr. Can and other workers have built wooden houses with modern designs, combining the high structure of stilt houses with indigenous materials such as bamboo and grass. The houses are mixed with nursery gardens and research of diversity of plants.

Standing from the house overlooking the river bank is a bamboo forest that villagers planted in the 1980s to prevent floods. “Thanks to this bamboo forest, when the flood comes, the flow will decrease”, he is explained. “Like when water runs through that basket.”

In front of the bamboo forest, along the riverbank is the ecological embankment.

Use “soft” against “hard”

Different from the commonly applied concrete hard revetment in Vietnam, the soft revetment does not resist the destruction of waves and floods but backs and accepts it – more similar to the village motto of living with floods. This 200 years old.

“The current popular philosophy is that people are fighting against nature, conquering nature with hard solutions and ignoring the understanding of coastal ecosystems, the access between water and land”, PhD. Mr. Dao analyzed. “Thinking like conquering nature, using it hard against the power of nature will be terrible because its destructive power will be even greater.”

Principle TS. Cherry mentioned that the law is immutable in physics: punching a wall with your hand will always hurt more if you punch the mattress with the same force. And given the increasing intensity and destructive power of storms and floods due to the effects of climate change, new coping measures are becoming more and more imperative to minimize damage from dike breaks.

Illustration of three-layer ecological soft embankment used to cope with the landslide of TS. Ngo Anh Dao. Illustration: lambinh

In the design of the ecological embankment, the cork tree is TS. Cherry brought back to plant from Quang Tri, is the outer layer of the buffer protecting the village shore. The roots of this plant are of two types. The main root is poked straight down, possibly up to ten meters deep. The secondary roots, also known as lung roots, are precipitated when immature, soft and swaying with the waves. When the tree grows, this lung root hardens, protrudes from the mud about 60-80cm, very hard. Therefore, cork trees have the ability to accumulate mud, hold soil, and reduce the destructive power of underground waves.

Next to the cork layer is a layer of grass, including native grasses such as hammer grass, grass with bald roots that can be up to 3m deep below the ground, next to the pangasius is a two-leafed tree, the roots are even deeper. tens of meters. These are easy-to-live, fast-growing plants with good soil holding capacity.

The last layer is a row of casuarina trees planted from 2017 that are 8m high. In addition to the ability to hold soil, the height and softness of the conifers help to both block waves and windbreak.

These three layers together create a green vegetation reinforced with bamboo biological “lock” layers to support soil retention in the early years when the layers are young, the roots are not deep enough.

With the initial results achieved, TS. Anh Dao is confident that the philosophy behind this model is the right direction for the sensitive downstream areas that are suffering from both natural disasters and natural disasters. The flood discharge of dozens of hydroelectricity upstream; exploitation of sand in the river bed; monoculture agriculture, improper exploitation of groundwater, causing subsidence; along with tourism development, regardless of the fragility of the ground here, all contribute to increasing the risk of landslides in the area, he explained.

Natural balance

Realizing the initial efficiency of the project, in addition to the affordable price – the construction cost of 1 meter of ecological embankment is only 1/5 of the cost of building the concrete embankment – Hoi An government plans to extend 900m of longitudinal embankment. According to the territory of Phuoc Thang village in the neighboring Cam Kim commune, where after the flood in 2017, the bank fell 50 meters deep into the mainland.

However, the ecological embankment is not without its risks. “An embankment requires a tree to develop to a certain extent to be effective,” said Nguyen The Hung, vice president of Hoi An city. This is a fact to consider when choosing the time to start planting trees for ecological embankments because according to the experience of the Hoi An people, every three to five years a big flood will repeat and the poor forest also needs that many years. to be able to cope with floods.

The most obvious evidence is the initial failures in the construction of ecological embankments by TS. Cherry. In fact, the horticultural forest she planted in 2018 was the second test after the failure of 2017, when the historic flood hit and killed the immature cork trees that were only one year old.

Pham Duoc, born and raised in the village of Trem Tay, had to move his house due to the impact of floods and landslides. Photo taken on January 26, 2121 in Trem Tay village (Dien Phuong, Dien Ban district, Quang Nam province). Photo: Yen Duong

Therefore, each ecological embankment requires a deep understanding of the local soil and climate. Invited by the authorities of Dak Nong and Dak Lak to study the replication of an ecological embankment model for the Krong No riverbank, which is suffering from severe landslides, PhD. Anh Dao cannot carry the whole model from An Nhien. The key thing that does not change is the principle of using measures of “soft, back and forth” instead of “forward and conquer”.

Post-flood cleaning in An Nhien continues after Tet. Meanwhile, the poor forest has begun to show signs of revitalization. “Maybe I will leave it alone, the cork tree will grow back on its own, or I will plant more, depending on the budget”. Anh Dao said.

What is important according to the doctor is the long-term perspective. Once the embankment ecosystem is returned to its natural equilibrium, other social and economic benefits will follow.

Since the ecological embankment, shrimp, fish, birds, wild ducks, many insects have created a new source of livelihood for the village. Each spring, “so many birds can not sleep at night,” he shared. The green embankment on the transparent river also contributes to attracting more tourists to visit this ancient village.

If before 2015, Trem Tay land was sold for 1 million / m2, not many people bought, now, the land price has increased 15 times thanks to community tourism projects, resorts and the belief that village land will is kept. Walking around the road surrounded by the tea tree fence of the village, you can see that people are taking advantage of repairing and repainting their houses to make them more stable and spacious. From the past two years, young people working away from home have come back with plans to do tourism and open shops. All just wait for the disease to pass to be ready to revive.

Le Giang Lam

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(This article is supported by the Rainforest Press Foundation in partnership with Pulitzer Center)

At the meeting, Mr. Nguyen Huu Trung – Deputy Director of Binh Thuan Department of Transport said: Over the past time, the province has stepped up the implementation of site clearance work as well as issues related to the project, especially especially the work of solving the demand for construction materials of the expressway project. Up to now, the number of households and organizations has handed over 2,657 / 2,684 dossiers, reaching the rate of 99%; The compensated clean land area was 1,204.89 ha, reaching the rate of 98.6%. 27 households have not received compensation money and handed over the premises. In addition, at the locations where the ground has been handed over, there are 25 cases (received money and signed the handover) but have not moved or handed over the site to construction contractors. Currently, the province is actively directing the People’s Committees of relevant localities to completely settle the compensation and site clearance work in May 2021.

The Economic Committee of the National Assembly’s supervisory delegation works with Binh Thuan province.

According to the report of Project Management Unit (PMU) 7 and PMU Thang Long, the total demand for construction materials for the project of the Vinh Hao – Phan Thiet section and the Phan Thiet – Dau Giay section is nearly 16 million blocks.

Deputy Director of Binh Thuan Department of Transport added: For the demand for construction sand and stone, the construction material mines in the province can meet the needs of the project. As for embankment materials, according to the approved technical design documents of the approved Vinh Hao – Phan Thiet and Phan Thiet – Dau Giay sections, the reserves of the mines in the province meet the quality and demand of the project. project. However, through the field survey at the mines, the volume of soil and soil cover mentioned above is preliminarily classified into 3 categories by PMU 7, PMU Thang Long, including: Soil, rock mixed with weathered rock and rock.

According to the assessment of the two boards mentioned above, the soil mixed with rock and weathered rock does not meet the requirements for making backfill materials according to the project’s technical requirements. Based on the proposals of the Thang Long Project Management Board and PMU 7, the Provincial Working Group is now speeding up the determination of the mines being exploited that need to increase capacity, expand the scale, or push To speed up the mining licensing procedures to guide the Miners in order procedures, shorten the time but ensure compliance with the provisions of law. At the same time, invite the Miners to work to guide the procedures for capacity increase, scaling up and mining licensing. Expected to complete the mining licensing procedures in the second quarter of 2021.

Mr. Vu Hong Thanh – Member of the Party Central Committee – Chairman of the Economic Committee of the National Assembly spoke at the meeting.

At the meeting, Chairman of Binh Thuan Provincial People’s Committee – Le Tuan Phong said: The province has drastically participated in solving the needs of building materials for the expressway project, step by step solving problems, Gradually came to agreement on issues related to the provision of soil filling materials for the project. In particular, the province has instructed the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and related departments and sectors to give priority to processing investment, environmental, land, and mining permits within 3 working days upon receipt. are business records.

To ensure the demand for building materials for the project, the Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee suggested that the Project Management Units: Thang Long, 7, 85 coordinate closely with relevant departments and branches of the province and mine owners. to survey, evaluate and determine the reserves and quality of each field of embankment materials to unify data, propose ground-filling requirements for each specific construction and installation package, in which clearly identify which mines Exploiting operations need to increase capacity, expand the scale, which mines need to speed up the mining licensing procedures.

The Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee also requested the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to guide the province to shorten the time for implementing mining licensing procedures. At the same time, it is recommended that the Ministry of Transport soon consider and approve the plan to use 1.1 million cubic meters of salvaged rock in package No. 01, Vinh Hao – Phan Thiet section to crush into expressway embankment as proposed. proposal of PMU 7; Consider and approve for the use of rock and wind mixed in mines.

The Chairman of the Economic Committee of the National Assembly – Vu Hong Thanh highly appreciated the efforts of Binh Thuan province in implementing and implementing the North-South Expressway project in the East, the section passing through the province, especially the coordination. solving the need for building materials to implement the project. Mr. Vu Hong Thanh also suggested that the province continue to direct the completion of site clearance in May 2021 according to the province’s progress; Early completion of related procedures to ensure a dumping site for project construction. Regarding the handling of materials for construction, the Chairman of the Economic Committee of the National Assembly requested the Ministry of Transport to review the material needs of the entire route, directing the Project Management Boards to: Thang Long, 7, 85 urgently coordinate with the province to remove problems.