VietNamNet Bridge – A lack of space for the dead and chaotic graveyards has prompted Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to issue a decree for the building, managing and use of cemeteries.

The decree, issued last month, governs the planning; building; upgrading; closing or moving of graveyards as well as their use and management.

Construction Ministry’s Urban Technological Infrastructure Department deputy director Nguyen Hong Tien argues that the planning of cemeteries will only be effective when it is synchronised throughout the country.

But only two of Vietnam’s 64 provinces and cities, Hanoi and central Thua Thien-Hue Province, have master plans for graveyards, he says.

Architect Nguyen Nhu Khue of the ministry’s centre for rural-urban environmental research says most of Vietnam’s historic cemeteries were built to suit the terrain.

Social-economic development; population growth and the increasing demand of land for industry, agriculture and tourism means this is no longer true.

"It’s the culture of the Vietnamese to value graveyards but a lack of legal documents has led to their unsystematic creation," the architect says.

"We should reduce moving old graveyards if they don’t affect their surrounds."

Both the deputy director and the architect agree that a master plan for dedicated city cemeteries is urgently needed because the increasing demand for graveyards is affecting construction and urban development projects.

HCM City

Although public cemeteries offer a more attractive landscape than those that are privately owned, more families are choosing the latter because of their reasonable price and the free choice of grave sites.

Most private cemeteries were created spontaneously by individuals in outlying Cu Chi, Hoc Mon, Thu Duc and Binh Chanh districts and HCM City’s Architectural Planning Department figures put the total space they occupy at 1,100ha.

Neighbouring Long An, Binh Duong and Dong Nai provinces also have private cemeteries.

When HCM City’s biggest cemetery, Binh Hung Hoa with its 50,000 graves, was closed last August, the decision immediately put the remaining two public cemeteries, Da Phuoc and Go Dua, under pressure.

Go Dua cemetery is so overcrowded that graves are only available only after bodies are exhumed for cremation.

The 7.5-ha Da Phuoc cemetery has 6,000 plots.

Located in a park of trees and lawns with headstones that represent houses, the price of a gravesite has increased rapidly to match the cost of residential and commercial land in the city.

The cost of gravesites range from VND10mil to VND25mil compared with VND5mil in a private cemetery.

The owner of a private graveyard in outlying Cu Chi District compares his revenue with the compensation paid for the acquisition of agricultural land.

Hue graves

Land for cemeteries in Thua Thien-Hue Province totals up to 8,200ha, or 1.6% of all land and 15.7% of arable land.

An additional 40ha goes for graves each year.

Thuan An; the Phu Vang District’s Phu Thuan Commune; Lang Co; and Phu Loc District’s Vinh Hien and Vinh My communes have no more land for cemeteries.

The province’s three public cemeteries are overcrowded and officials say that 392,000 separate graves need to be relocated together.

(Source: Viet Nam News)