The river mouths of Kon and Ha Thanh, the two big rivers that motion to the Thi Nai lagune, are in the danger of dynamic their modify due to the effort of a business direct, which may seriously influence the harbor scheme in Quy Nhon Municipality.
Encroaching the lagoon to get land for tourism project
A large area located at the foot of the Thi Nai Bridge – the longest sea-crossing in Vietnam that spans the Thi Nai lagoon – is changing it shape rapidly because of a construction site where people try to encroach on the lagoon to get land for the tourism product.
Tens of trucks were seen carrying sand from the Nhon Hoi economic zone there and then throwing sand into the lagoon. To date, the northeastern part of the lagoon has encroached onto the sea by hundreds of meters.
Le Tan Dang, a local resident in Nhon Hoi commune of Quy Nhon City, said that since the day sand is poured into the lagoon to encroach onto the sea, the flow regime of Kon and Ha Thanh rivers has changed, while the Nhon Hoi seaport has also been influenced.
“We fear that when heavy floods rush down, this will cause immeasurable consequences,” he said.
According to the Binh Dinh Economic Zone, the lagoon encroachment is a part of the project on the Nhon Hoi shopping mall – service – tourism complex developed by Quoc Thang Company. The project is expected to cover an area of 74 hectares.
Nguyen Ngoc Toan, Deputy Head of the Binh Dinh Economic Zone’s Management Board, said that a part of the land for the project has been designed to be created from the lagoon encroachment. Therefore, Quoc Thang Company has been pouring sand into the lagoon to get polder for the project.
Toan admitted that the approved project does not mention the building of embankments to prevent the sand slide into the lagoon.
“When we considered the project previously, we saw that the encroached area was not big, therefore, we did not require building embankments,” Toan explained.
No agency has come forward and supervised the lagoon encroachment carried out by Quoc Thang Company. As a result, the total area for the project has increased by 20 hectares in comparison with the area in the approved project, while the encroachment has seriously affected 
the environment.
While the project has been causing immediate consequences which have not been settled, the Binh Dinh provincial authorities have allowed Quoc Thang Company to implement another project on developing Dai Phu Gia luxury villa area on the northwestern area of the Thi Nai Bridge, with the total area of 34 hectares.
Bad consequences obvious
The encroached area on Thi Nai lagoon is situated just 1-1.5 kilometers far from the Quy Nhon, Thi Nai and the new Central ports. Therefore, experts have warned that the sedimentation proves to be a high risk.
“Since the encroached area is located adjacent to the estuary, the flow regime of Kon and Ha Thanh rivers would change. If so, sand would be carried by the new flows which will gradually fill in the Thi Nai lagoon and the seaports,” an official of the Binh Dinh provincial department for agriculture and rural development.
According to Le Minh Tien, Deputy General Director of the Quy Nhon port development company, the sedimentation has been going very rapidly. Recently, the depth of the seaport has decreased by one meter. If the situation continues, in the near future, the ships with the tonnage of 30,000-50,000 tons would not be able to enter the seaports.
