Can't sleep because it's too hot
Nearly a year after leaving Nghe An to work as workers in Hanoi, for the same amount of time, Mr. and Mrs. Lo Thi Hoa (32 years old), who are working at Bac Thang Long Industrial Park, had to stay in a rented room of more than 10m2 located deep in a small alley in Vinh Thanh commune.
The row of rented rooms where she lives is old after many years of use. The corridor is just enough for two motorbikes to pass through, clothes are hung densely on high. Each rented room is a narrow space, where adults eat, sleep, and live, all packed on a small bed placed close to the wall.
The prolonged heat wave forced Ms. Hoa and her husband to "cry their teeth" to buy an air conditioner priced at about 5 million VND, waiting for workers to come and install it. For many workers here, air conditioning is not necessarily something too far away, but electricity bills are what makes them hesitate.
Room rent, electricity, water, wifi, food... have accounted for almost all of workers' salaries, only about 7-8 million VND per month. Another air conditioner means another fixed expense that they have to consider for a long time.
Coming to Hanoi to earn a living, my husband and I have to send our 2-year-old son to his paternal grandparents to take care of. Every month we have to save money to send home to raise our child. I miss my child very much, but if I bring him here, no one will look after him" - Ms. Hoa confided.
According to her, working in the factory with air conditioning during the day is still comfortable, but returning to the rented room in the evening, the heat from the corrugated iron roof is suffocating.
Installing air conditioning will increase electricity bills, and the money sent back to children will also decrease. But it's too hot, there's no other way, so we have to cut other expenses," she said.
Hot" rented rooms in the middle of summer in Hanoi
Not everyone in the rented room area has the ability to buy air conditioners like Ms. Hoa's family. The entire row of more than ten rooms in area 2/7, Vinh Thanh commune, mostly are out-of-province workers, but only Ms. Hoa's room is preparing to install air conditioners. The remaining rooms are still fighting the heat with a few old fans.
Lo Van Cong (born in 2008, from Thanh Hoa) said that it took many days to find a room priced at 700,000 VND/month that matched his budget.
The room is hot and stuffy, without air conditioning, so we can hardly sleep. But we don't dare to buy air conditioners or refrigerators, because electricity costs a lot. For workers like us, those are still luxury items" - Cong said.
Around Bac Thang Long industrial park, rows of workers' boarding houses grow close together in small alleys. Many boarding houses were built more than ten years ago, walls are moldy, and corrugated iron roofs are old and degraded over time.
In a room of about 10m2 in Be Tong area, Vinh Thanh commune, Mr. Vu Van Tien (from Nghe An) said that he came to Hanoi to work as a worker from 2017, with a salary of about 8 million VND/month. Electricity bill of 3,500 VND/kWh, making him afraid to buy air conditioners and refrigerators because he is afraid of increased costs.
Amidst the cramped rows of rented rooms in the suburbs of Hanoi, many workers are still struggling to get through the summer with old fans, restless sleep and the thriftness of every thousand VND of electricity bill.
