VietNamNet Bridge – Local people rush to dig for gold, hoping to have a new life. With their actions, they are killing themselves because they are damaging the environment where they live.

The Cam Muon commune in Que Phong district of Nghe An province has been well known as a land rich in mineral sand, and as a land which has been seriously polluted.

Local residents believe that they need to excavate the treasure in the earth’s womb. Therefore, they have recently rushed to purchase machines and equipment to dig for gold everywhere, from the area in the mountain foot, to the riverbank and fields.

Those, who came to the gold digging site in Cam village, might see the turbid effervescent water in the Huoi Quya River. A lot of very deep holes were dug here that serve the gold exploitation. There were some holes with the diameter of 30 meters, and some groups of people digging and sifting for gold.

Lu Van, one of the gold diggers, said that from August 2011 to the end of January 2012, hundreds of people flocked here to dig for gold. However, they have returned to their home village after the local authorities sent staff here to prevent illegal digging for gold.

When asked why Van still tried to dig for gold, even though he knew that this was illegal, he said that he has no money and he needs to find gold which he can sell for food. “Local officials would only arrest the people who use big machines, while they would not pay attention to us, the people who work manually,” he said.

The area has become a gold digging site since July 2011, when some people discovered gold in the land. Hundreds of local residents flocked there to dig for gold, hoping to have a new life. As a result, after several months of digging for gold, the land area along the Huoi Quya River and the Pu Huong mountain foot has become desolated.

After the illegal digging by some individuals was stopped by the local taskforce, the Cam Muon land has, once again, turned into a gold digging site, when the Lac Viet Culture and Media Joint Stock Company brought machines here to carry out the exploitation in a large scale. The company has been not only looking for gold in the licensed areas, but also in the rice fields of local residents.

The overexploitation has turned the Huoi Quya River turbid and dull red. Sometimes, big earth blocks slide into the river. Lo Van Toan, Cell Secretary of the Cam Nooc village, pointing to the dull red river, said that for the last many years, local residents used the water of the river for the daily life. However, since the day the company began the exploitation here, they cannot use the water any more. “We have to travel tens of kilometers to get water and then bring it home for use,” he said.

The representatives of the 11 villages here came to see the company’s representative, requesting to follow the committed procedure of treating waste. However, the company replied that the local residents do not have the right to intervene its business.

Local residents in the Cam Muon commune then had to make an appeal to the commune’s and district’s authorities, but they have not got the reply.

For the last many years, local residents have been living on fishing and the bread earner. However, they have to give up the job, because there is no fish to catch.

Source: Dai Doan Ket