Hanoi (VNA) – The Hanoi People’s Court on March 13 declared jail terms tonine defendants involved in the 18 successive ruptures of the Da River waterpipelines following the trial lasting more than one week. 

Theywere charged with violating regulations on construction, causing seriousconsequences in accordance with Article 229, the Criminal Code 1999.

A24-month jail term was given to Hoang The Trung (former Director of themanagement board of the Da River water supply system investment andconstruction project) and Tran Cao Bang (former Director of the Vinaconex GlassFiber Reinforced Polyester Pipe JSC).

A20-month imprisonment sentence was handed down on Nguyen Van Khai (formerDeputy Director of the management board of the Da River water supply systeminvestment and construction project), Vu Thanh Hai (former head of theproduction division, former workshop foreman, and former Deputy Director of theVinaconex Glass Fiber Reinforced Polyester Pipe JSC), and Do Dinh Tri (formerofficial of the Vietnam Water, Sanitation and Environment JSC (VIWASE) underthe Ministry of Construction, and former chief of the consultant and monitoringteam at the Da River water supply project).

TruongTran Hien (former head of the materials and equipment division of themanagement board) was jailed for 16 months.

Meanwhile,Hoang Quoc Thong (former official of VIWASE, former overseer at the Da Riverwater supply project) and Nguyen Bien Hung (former official of VIWASE, formerdeputy head of the consultant and monitoring team) got 16 months’ probation.

12months’ probation was given to Bui Minh Quan (Deputy Director of the equipmentconstruction and business company under the VIWASE, former overseer at the DaRiver water supply project).

Accordingto the indictment of the Supreme People’s Procuracy, the Da River water supplyproject, invested by the Vietnam Construction and Import-Export Joint StockCorporation (Vinaconex), was built from 2004 to April 2009.

FromFebruary 4, 2012 to October 2, 2016, 23 fiberglass-reinforced compositepipelines were broken for 18 times, forcing the Vinaconex Water Supply company– the operator of the pipeline system – to spend more than 16.6 billion VND(732,000 USD) to fix the broken lines.

Thebroken pipelines halted the supply of more than 1.74 million cu.m. of water to177,000 households in Hanoi for a total of 386 hours.

Theinspection conclusion on April 15, 2015 confirmed that the ruptures were causedby violations in the pipeline production process and the management andmonitoring of the pipeline construction.

Duringthe investigation, the police agency for investigation under the Ministry ofPublic Security also launched criminal proceedings against seven persons forthe charge of violating construction regulations causing serious consequences.They were Phi Thai Binh (Chairman of the Vinaconex board of directors), NguyenVan Tuan (member of the board of directors and General Director of Vinaconex),Hoang Hop Thuong, Vu Dinh Cham and To Ngoc Thanh (members of the board ofdirectors), Lai Van Bich (Director of the project management board), and NguyenDuc Luu (head of the investment division of Vinaconex).

Theyallegedly decided to change the pipeline material from ductile iron tofiberglass-reinforced composite when they had not verified the effectiveness ofthe change. They also allegedly assigned the Vinaconex Glass Fiber ReinforcedPolyester Pipe JSC to produce and supply pipelines to the project when the firmhad just been established and not had enough capacity to carry out the work.

However,inspectors of the Construction Ministry said on September 30, 2016 that thechange of material did not cause the ruptures, and the assignment of the workto the Vinaconex Glass Fiber Reinforced Polyester Pipe JSC was in line with theaccused’ s competence and the project investment format.

 On December 14, 2017 the Supreme People’sProcuracy overturned the criminal proceedings against the seven abovementionedpersons.-VNA