VietNamNet Bridge – After cooking dinner, Nguyen Dac Sua put the gas cooker temporarily outside the front door of his small home - and went back inside to lay the table.

Illustrative image.—Photo vnexpress

He put the folding table, which doubles as a tea table, in a corner of the cramped living room also featuring a flat TV on the wall and a fridge.

Sua carefully unfolded the table and chairs so as not to waken his 18-month old nephew sleeping on a sofa.

The habit of having dinner in the living room instead of the dining room arose years ago when his family increased from four to seven.

However, despite the new additions to the family, all members are still living in just 26sq.m of space in Thanh Xuan Nam Ward, Thanh Xuan District, Ha Noi.

"It was OK when four of us lived in the house. However, when my two sons got married, they needed their own space, but we were not allowed to upgrade or enlarge the house," he said.

Sua, 58, like hundreds of others living in Thanh Xuan Nam Ward, has been stuck with the problem for nearly 30 years.

All their houses are located on 10,000sq.m of land slated for the development of apartments, a school and cultural house, said the Chairman of Thanh Xuan Nam Ward People's Committee, Do Kien Cuong.

"The project was approved by Ha Noi authorities in 1983. Planning has been changed several times, but has yet to be implemented," Cuong said.

Sua said that as the houses could not be enlarged, more space had been found by putting the kitchen oven temporarily outside the house and eating meals in the living room.

Head of Thanh Xuan District's Natural Resources and Environment Office Dinh Tien Sy said when the project eventually went ahead, all households would have their land revoked.

But, at present, they cannot apply for a household registration book that enables them to be recognised as "official permanent residents" of Ha Noi.

Having permanent residency is incredibly important in Viet Nam. And household registration books are indispensable when children go to school - or get married. If there are no registration books, householders are often forced to pay extra money.

"I still remember how hard it was to get permission from local authorities for my elder son to get married five years ago," Sua said.

"The authorities refused to grant permission without a household registration book and asked him to go to his former home to apply for marriage permission," Sua said.

"However, authorities in the village where we used to live also refused to grant marriage permission because we had shifted from that address a long time ago," he said.

"Finally, I had to ask one of acquaintances to get marriage permission from the administration for my son - illegally," he added.

Le Van Nam, 60, another resident in the area, said he could not receive a pension without a household registration book in Thanh Xuan Nam Ward.

This has forced him to travel to his old home in northern Hoa Binh Province, 70km from Ha Noi, to get the pension every three or six months.

Nguyen Thi Ha Lien, head of a residential group in the planned development area, said residents encountered many difficulties without land-rights ownership and household registration books.

"Many houses are in poor condition, but permission is denied to upgrade them," she said. "Our children can't go to proper local schools or have to pay a larger sum of money than other children to get permission to study," she said.

Lien said that three to four generations often lived under the same roof, but were not allowed to upgrade or rebuild.

"We have lived here for more than 30 years and our children were born here, but cannot be recognised as official permanent residents of Ha Noi," she said.

Without land-rights ownership and a household registration book residents are also unable to get credit from banks to expand production and trade, Lien said.

The situation is similar in other districts of Ha Noi, such as Cau Giay, Hoang Mai and Tu Liem.

According to the city's Architectural Planning Department, up until last September, the department had examined another 244 urban redevelopment plans which were also causing problems.

Many keep being delayed and householders do not know when they will receive compensation for relocation or when they will be resettled.

"I even have no idea of who has invested in our project and when it can go ahead. I was simply told by authorities that my house was in a planned area," Sua said.

When being asked about the timing of projects, authorities in both Thanh Xuan Nam Ward and Thanh Xuan District said they had no information and just waited for guidelines from higher authorities.

Residents have filed petitions with municipal authorities many times complaining about the lack of action, but have learned little.

Deputy head of the Viet Nam Federation of Civil Engineering Associations Pham Sy Liem said it was essential to review redevelopment projects regularly to prevent too many delays.

"Projects that can't be implemented in the first five years should be scrapped," he said. "Authorities should allow residents in planned areas to upgrade their houses temporarily."

"There is a saying An cu moi lac nghiep, that translates as When one finds a stable home, the fruits of a future career follow," Sua said.

Source: VNS