18 households live in fear next to the mouth of Ha Ba

Temporary, precarious

In the morning, Ms. Vo Thi Xuan Dao (18 Vo Nguyen Giap, Nhon Hoa ward) laboriously moves a few plastic tables and chairs, a few hammocks under the bridge, and begins a day of hard work. She has nothing to sell: a few cans of soft drinks, a bunch of young coconuts, a basket of guavas, a pot of filtered coffee...

The Ba Di Bridge T-junction (the familiar name of the South of Ganh Bridge), where Ms. Dao laboriously collects every penny, is a familiar address on the national highway. This is the intersection between National Highway 1 and National Highway 19 to the Central Highlands, to Laos and Cambodia, a bustling gathering place all year round.

The lives of the residents of Huynh Kim neighborhood, Nhon Hoa ward have been turned upside down since the construction of the National Highway 19 overpass under the Nam Binh Dinh BOT project. The traffic reorganization has turned the bustling intersection into an internal road. Cars are banned from circulating; people's daily lives are isolated.

Like her neighbor, Ms. Dao's house and land were swept away by 3-4m by flood and erosion. She said: "The kitchen is now precariously close to the riverbank. In 2023, it was so dilapidated that it was at risk of collapsing into the water, so I had to fix it. The ward came down to make a record. They announced that after the clearance and relocation, there would be no support or compensation. I had to sign the acceptance record, what else could I do?"

“Living in fear”

In 2013 and 2017, Huynh Kim was submerged by floods, forcing many houses to be urgently evacuated. The entire row of houses along Vo Nguyen Giap Street was stripped away layer by layer by the rain, wind, and waves of the Kon River during the flood season. Six families had to close their doors and move elsewhere.

Ms. Le Thi Phuoc, at 08 Vo Nguyen Giap, both land and house are 180 square meters. Built in 1980, the foundation was made of stone gabions, but her house had to undergo two reinforcements; the 2017 reinforcement cost nearly 100 million VND. The house seemed to be split in two with a large crack between the two walls; the back foundation was pulled out and collapsed. "Whenever it rains, my heart aches, no one dares to linger inside" - the 72-year-old woman said.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Giong’s house, 45 square meters wide, is even more terrifying when it cracks and breaks wide open. The cracks run from top to bottom, from front to back. There are sections of the wall with gaps that stretch out to 4-5cm, just waiting to collapse! Ms. Giong gives a detail to visualize the intensity of the erosion: “The well used to be in the middle of the plot of land, now it’s… close to the river bank.” The well is hard to avoid pollution because it’s too close to the source of domestic waste while the residents of Huynh Kim all use tap water.

Mr. Phan Thanh Tan, a rare man we met, said: “In 2023, people were invited to give their opinions on the response plan. I heard that the government had already chosen land for relocation. What is the truth, no one has mentioned it since then.”

Chairman of Nhon Hoa Ward People's Committee Nguyen Minh Muon said it was unclear why that shabby, risky residential area was not resettled when establishing the Ba Di bridge intersection, both to ensure natural disaster prevention requirements and to create space for urban beautification.

“The desire to move to a new, safer place is legitimate, even very urgent. The town has a resettlement land plan, right in Huynh Kim area. However, how it will be arranged and when it will be implemented is not specific,” said Mr. Muon.

The stormy season in the Central region is approaching!