Authorities in the mountainous district of Quan Hoa in Vietnam's north-central Thanh Hoa Province have carried out the relocation of a local graveyard to deal with landslide risk in the area.

The People’s Committee of Quan Hoa District has successfully convinced Thai ethnicity people, who had their ancestors, family members, or relatives’ graves situated at Trung Thanh Commune’s cemetery, to move them to another safe place.

The relocation was prompted by the landslide onto the Trung Thanh secondary semi-boarding school for ethnic minorities, its dormitory, and the Trung Thanh Commune office near there in January.

The landslide happened during the construction of the anti-landslide embankment project with an investment of over VND9.3 billion (US$403,000) next to the Trung Thanh secondary semi-boarding school and the commune’s administration office.

As a result, 197 students of the school have had to temporarily share the local elementary school.

Of them, 107 students, who lived at the school’s dormitory, must temporarily stay at local people’s houses nearby.

Meanwhile, their teachers and the school’s officers have been relocated to a local cultural house.

The persuasion for the graveyard relocation was an uneasy task as the local Thai ethnic community’s customs and practices oppose moving graves.

The total budget for the site clearance of the cemetery relocation was VND322 million ($13,900).

The resettlement has been completed, with a total of 75 graves being safely moved to a new cemetery.

Following that, the contractor of the anti-landslide embankment project has started working on the consequences of the landslide.

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