The central coastal province of Quang Nam is undertaking the firstphase of dredging work on the Cua Dai River estuary in Hoi An to enablelarge fishing vessels to berth.

Phan Quang Them, technicalofficer with the Domestic Waterway Management Department, which issupervising the project, said the project was divided into two phases.

In the first phase, workers will dredge 100,000 cubic metres ofsediment from a 2-km long stretch of waterway to be 30 metres wide and 4metres deep.

Le Trung Dung, head of the work team, said recent heavy rain and strong waves had hindered operations.
He said work was being sped up to allow fishermen to navigate the estuary after Tet (Lunar New Year).

During the second phase of work, the province will ask the Ministry ofTransport to continue dredging the estuary to make it navigable foreven bigger vessels.

Last year, a build-up of silt in the CuaDai estuary after the eleventh major storm, Nari, hit the region. Notonly did this block thousands of fishing boats, but halted mosttransport to the 3,000 people on the Cham Islands, 15km from theestuary.

The 1km-wide estuary had a depth of only 1.2 metres atlow tide and 1.8 metres at high tide. Vessels using engines of more than30 horsepower could not navigate the shallows.

The provincialPeople's Committee assigned the Department of Transport to urgentlydredge the estuary. The Ho Chi Minh City based-Que Huong Constructionand Trading Joint Stock Company won the contract.-VNA