VietNamNet Bridge – The land here is as black as charcoal, while the documents about the land have been marked “confidential.” The strange land area is in Tien An Commune of Tien Phuoc district in the central province of Quang Nam.

According to Nguyen Thanh Hai, Chair of the Tien An Commune People’s Committee, the black land covers an area of one hectare, where more than 50 households are living.

The land here has a strange color. It is as black as charcoal. The commune’s and district’s authorities have many times asked competent agencies to come and research about the soil. However, to date, no conclusion has been made so far.

It’s quite a surprise that while the soil is black, the water here is clean and pure. The local people have been settling down here for the last many years. Everything has been going well, with no case of child birth defects or cancer diseases reported.

The land area is just 500 meters far from the commune people’s committee’s head office. Doan Ngoc Long, 33, showing the reporters the land, said the land here is abnormally black, which must not be the color of natural soil. Especially, the soil is soft.

Long and his family members have been living here for the last tens of years. The place where Long set up his house was once the site for the geological exploration activities conducted by the experts from the former Soviet Union in 1980s.

Long then rubbed the ground slightly with his hands. The soil glistened. When Long handled a handful of soil, his hands turned black.

Only perennials can be grown on the land, such as acacia or eucalyptus. Meanwhile, short term trees, including vegetables and farm produce would die after some days.

Duong Chi Cong, Director of the Quang Nam provincial Department of Natural Resources and the Environment on July 17 told reporters that not only in Tien An communes, two other localities in the districts of Dai Loc and Nam Giang also have black soil.

After the black soil was discovered in the three localities, foreign experts and the experts from the General Department of Geology Mineral of Vietnam came to the site to investigate for a long time.

The general department then handed over the files showing the results of the research to the Quang Nam province. The provincial natural resource department later has handed over the documents to the districts’ authorities. Since the documents are confidential, they must not be provided to the press.

Cong later said that the black soil contains radioactive substance with anomalous concentration. Since the soil contained radioactive substance, it is necessary to grow suitable trees on the land.

“Regarding the black land area in Tien An Commune, we have told the local authorities not to build schools or healthcare centers in the area. The local residents on the black land area should be advised not to grow farm produce such as rice, maize and cassava.”

Local residents have also been told not to plough or clear the earth face. If they do this, the radioactive substance existing in the earth would release, thus affecting the life of local people. In the long term, the local authorities would organize emigrant campaigns to leave the land areas.

Dan Viet