1,000 Families of Ethnic Groups in the Central Highlands Access to Electricity

Nearly 1,000 families of ethnic groups in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak gained access to electricity of the national grid on January 23, just a few days ahead of the traditional Lunar New Year. They reside in the districts of Ea Kar, M’Drak, Ea Sup, Krong Bong and Krong Nang. Nearly 482,000 or 98 percent of the total households in all communes of Dak Lak have been connected to the grid so far – the highest numbers of beneficiary families and communes compared to the four other Central Highlands provinces. Nguyen Van Than, Director of the Dak Lak Power Company, said many power supply projects worth hundreds of billions of VND are being carried out in the province. It has invested nearly VND800 billion ($35.48 million) in building, repairing and upgrading the electricity network since 2011, meeting local production and daily demand. The firm is also expanding the network so that all families across the province will be linked with the national grid by 2020, he added. The Dak Lak Power Company is operating more than 4,000km of medium voltage lines, 4,624km of low voltage lines and 4,135 distribution transformers. The Central Highlands region consists of five provinces – Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, and Lam Dong. (vietnamplus.vn Jan 23)