Following reports that the Vietnam Coal and Minerals Group (VINACOMIN) has been given the green light to begin testing methods of extracting coal from a reportedly huge basin in the lower Red River Delta, there’s been an outpouring of concern by scientists and the general public. In this article we digest a representative few of the letters sent to VietNamNet.
Son Tran from the Hanoi-based National Economics University said that he didn’t want to go deeply into technical issues but argued: “Let’s consider Quang Ninh, the center of Vietnam’s coal industry. After more than 100 years of mining coal, Quang Ninh is a dusty industrial landscape, a degraded environment. For a long time to come, much of Quang Ninh’s land will not be available for agriculture or forestry, but coal exploitation only. What will we do with Quang Ninh when it is out of coal? How well have we managed these sites?
“How long can the Vietnam Coal and Mineral Group (Vinacomin) exploit coal from the 210 billion tone coal basin in the Red River Delta,” Tran asked. 100 years or 200 years? And what will we do after that? Will that land, so rich now, still be suitable for rice cultivation?”
“The Red River Delta certainly has enough sand to prevent landslides caused by mining activities but what will be the impact on agriculture? Calculating the price of mining sand and alluvial soil to fill the cavities left by coal mining, we must also calculate the price of the food that can no longer be produced.”
“Moreover,” Tran continued, “the local people have grown rice for centuries; we must consider the cultural cost of losing this tradition. All of these things not only have impacts on the Red River Delta but also will be felt by the entire country and generations to come.”
Reader Hoang Quoc Viet from Ha Nam province complained: “We have wasted too many natural resources because of subjective thinking. Lots of extraction projects have not even repaid the cost of the investment. Opening this coal basin is good but we must think through the consequences. In the past, we’ve sold our natural resources at dirt-cheap prices and later on we’ve have to re-import them at extremely high prices.
“What’s the big hurry?”
Reader Dao Van from Hanoi agreed with Viet: “Of course it is necessary to consider the country’s energy security in the future, but we don’t manage the use and exploitation of natural resources very well at current mines, so we should not be in a big hurry to open this coal basin.”
“Quang Ninh province once was fresh and green,” said this reader, “but loose management has turned coal mines there into whithered areas where the environment is ruined. Coal is exploited rampantly and not managed well, causing heavy losses for the country.
“It’s strange that we are considering importing coal but still exporting coal,” Van continued. And what are the consequences? It seems that our national policy in this area is not appropriate, nor does it take a long-run perspective. It seems that our laws aren’t strong enough to deter or deal with lawbreakers – or is there some other reason? It seems that in this matter of illegal (smuggled) exports of coal, someone has put the fox in charge of the henhouse.
Vu Van Lan from Dong Nai province noted reports of desertification stemming from climate change and poor agricultural practices, and forecasts that the land area for agriculture will shrink significantly while the population continues to rise, resulting in shortages of food and higher food prices.
Vietnam has two rice baskets, Lan pointed out. The Mekong River Delta is very low-lying and it may be reduced because of sea water encroachment, according to scientists. Some have calculated that in the next 20 years, the Mekong Delta will lose 30 percent of its area and Vietnam can face food shortage. Thus, he wrote, “if we exploit coal in the Red River Delta, our food security will be degraded, so we should not open this coal basin.”
Reader Nguyen Hong Kien, geologist, agreed with analysis of many scientists that it is too risky to open this coal basin. “As long as we can’t deal with environmental issues such as water drainage, the encroachment of sea water and the recovery of soil for plantation, how can we safeguard agriculture. What will happen to the farmers?”
Reader Tran Nhat Duy from Thai Binh wrote: “Vietnam is a developing country. Our human resources aren’t yet well-developed and we have to import a lot of technology at high prices. Meanwhile, some sectors are sell our raw materials at dirt-cheap prices and saying proudly that they contribute big amounts to the country’s GDP!”
“The 21st century is the century of knowledge-based economy,” Duy continued. Let’s invest seriously in education and import raw materials. Let’s look at the world. Many countries that are rich in natural resources still import raw materials and are doing fine. Are they more foolish than us?”
“While our scientific and technological level is still low,” said Duy, “we should not consider opening this coal basin, but leave it for our descendants. That’s the best policy to follow, rather than just blindly jumping into a huge and risky project to serve ‘growth.’”