An embankment of the Da Phuoc International Urban Project is built on coastal Nguyen Tat Thanh Street, Da Nang City. (Source: VNA)Da Nang (VNA) - The GovernmentInspectorate of Vietnam (GIV) will begin inspection on the controversial DaPhuoc International Urban project, along with all investment and constructionprojects on the protected Son Tra Peninsula.
The inspection will consider land use andland management practices and forest and environmental protection on thepeninsula, 10km from the city.
At a working session with the city’speople’s committee yesterday, it was revealed that the inspection would becarried out in 45 days on instructions from Deputy Prime Minister Truong HoaBinh.
The 17-member inspection team will verifyland management and land use practices of investment and construction projectson the peninsula, and inspect the growth of the Da Phuoc Urban project in DaNang over the 2003-16 period.
The inspection of projects in Da Nang wasspurred by public concerns over mass development of buildings, hotels, resortsand villas on the Son Tra Nature Reserve on the peninsula.
Members of the public also called for ahalt of the tourism master plan, which had aimed to build 1,920 villas, 24bungalows and 1,600 luxury hotel rooms by 2030 on the 4,439ha Son Tra NatureReserve.
In August, the Prime Minister asked the DaNang City’s People’s Committee to clear up the Son Tra Master Plan and ensureit fully complied with laws on forest and environmental protection,biodiversity conservation, defence and security.
But the city administration failed tocomply with the Prime Minister’s request for detailed plans to resolve theclash between the need to preserve the Son Tra Nature Reserve and the desire toaccelerate tourism development at the site.
According to a 2004 law on forestprotection and a 2008 law on biodiversity conservation, all land-use changesand forest land encroachment in the nature reserve are banned. Any change ofland-use purpose in the Son Tra forest must be decided by the Prime Minister.
Up to now, 18 out of 25 planned hotels andresorts on the Son Tra Mountain have been approved by the city on a total of1,220ha, while 137 private villas, of which more than 20 villas have alreadybeen built, are planned on 2.4ha in the reserve.
The reserve is unique in Vietnam and theworld. Its biodiversity ranges from primary forests to ocean dunes, with morethan 1,000 plants and 370 animal species.
More than 1,300 red-shanked douc langurs(Pygathryx nemaeus), which are critically endangered and found only ineast-central Laos and Vietnam, live in the Son Tra Nature Reserve.
Last month, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucissued an official warning to Da Nang City’s People’s Committee Chairman HuynhDuc Tho over joint responsibility for violations and shortcomings in land andurban management.
The developing Da Phuoc International UrbanProject was suspended in April when the city’s construction department deemedthe project’s environmental assessment report incomplete and uncovered and theuse of illegal sand for sea embankments for the project.-VNA
VNA
