After many days of drizzling rain, in the afternoon of February 26, the sunlight also dawned, shining down on the narrow rows of rented rooms. However, the sun was not enough to dispel the feeling of humidity and dampness still clinging to each small room.
In a rented room of less than 15m2, Ms. Nguyen Thi Trang (from Tuyen Quang) - a component assembly worker is renting a house for 1.5 million VND per month.
The rented room is kept neat and clean by her, but prolonged humid days cause more flies and mosquitoes to breed. This makes her worried, especially when there is a 10-month-old baby in the house.
It's humid, there are many mosquitoes. I have to buy more mosquito spray, insecticide to catch flies and mosquitoes. My child only dares to play in bed, always has to remove the mosquito net because she is afraid of being bitten by mosquitoes" - Ms. Trang shared. Clothes after washing cannot dry naturally, she has to incur additional costs to bring them to the drying shop.
Ms. Trang's family includes mother-in-law, husband and young child. Her husband is also a worker, the total income of the couple is about 17 million VND per month. With that income, just adding a small expense, whether it's money for drying clothes or buying more insect repellent, also makes her family have to weigh every penny.
I just hope to have a more spacious place to live, so that on humid or hot days, the whole family has a more breathable space" - she confided.
Not only Ms. Trang, many other workers in the rented room area are also struggling to manage in humid weather conditions.
Ms. Duong Thi Chung once rented a room for 700,000 VND per month, in a seriously degraded condition. Every time it rains heavily, the room is damp, the walls are stained with mold, the air is heavy and stuffy.
Recently, she decided to move to a more airy rented room for 1.6 million VND per month. However, humidity is still difficult to avoid, especially when the rented room lacks drying space.
These days there are a lot of insects, I have to buy mosquito spray and ant poison to use regularly" - Ms. Chung said. Clothes dried in the room for many days are not dry, the smell of mold sticks to each fabric, making daily life even more inconvenient.
Recorded in many workers' boarding houses around the industrial park, clothes are hung all over from inside the room to the corridor. Old, dilapidated rows of boarding houses are now even more moldy when the humid weather lasts, posing a potential risk to the health of workers.
The latest report of the Hanoi Labor Federation shows that there are currently about 167,000 workers working in industrial parks, export processing zones and high-tech zones in Hanoi city.
Among them, more than 60% of workers have to rent rooms in surrounding residential areas, mainly spontaneous, cramped boarding houses, unsafe living conditions and not ensuring environmental sanitation.
A survey by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor also shows that about 90% of workers are renting rooms in cramped rooms, with poor living conditions. Many rooms have very small areas, commonly only 10-20 m2, causing the material and spiritual life of workers to be increasingly under pressure.
The humid days in Hanoi are not only a story of weather, but also clearly reveal the reality of housing still facing many difficulties for workers.
In those damp rented rooms, the desire for a spacious, safe and fulfilling home is still a simple but distant dream for many workers far from home.
