Life changes, no longer able to make a living from the river
Ms. Nguyen Thi Due (69 years old, a resident of Nguyet Duc fishing village) said that her grandfather lived on a boat, she was also born in the floating village. Later, she got married, her husband also got married, and 4 children were born one by one, the whole family still continued to fish shrimp. But then the two banks of the Cau River developed industrial, the environment changed, and shrimp and fish were no longer enough to support fishermen like Mrs. De.
Her four children have to be away from home, some work for companies, some work for hire. Ms. De still stays in the boat, but every day she has to go ashore to wash dishes for hire to earn 50,000 VND. "A few decades ago, the river had a lot of fish, so we lived enough. Now the river water is dirty, all the fish are gone, every day I go ashore to find a job to work for hire, when I'm full, when I'm hungry, when I'm hungry, I have to endure it. Living on a boat, we do not have any land, sand or profession," said Ms. De.
Coming across the river for about 1km, Mr. Nguyen Van Hoan (48 years old) used to be a member of the sand suction team of Nguyet Duc village, now unemployed, just lying on a boat watching the water flow. For the past 5 years, Mr. Hoan's main job has been to row a boat in the morning and afternoon to take his wife across the river to work as a worker. Mr. Hoan's wife goes to work 12km from the village.
Living on the boat, the people of Nguyet Duc said it was very dangerous. On stormy and flood nights, they are always restless and afraid that their boats will be swept away by water. Waterlogging is also a constant danger. Two years ago, in a short time, there were two consecutive boat capsizes, an old woman and two children were swept away and died.
Living in the river but having to go to sea to work and study, the life of the fishing village people is facing many inconveniences.
"I really want to go to shore, but I don't have capital to buy land to build a house, and I don't have mortgaged assets, so it's difficult to borrow. Hopefully, the government will support free resettlement land and lend money to build houses, so that we can have a peaceful life", Mr. Hoan's wish is also the wish of the entire Nguyet Duc village.
Resettlement project will start construction in 2025
On October 12, speaking with a reporter from Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Nguyen Dai Luong - Secretary of the Van Ha Ward Party Committee - shared: "Because it is located in the flood drainage corridor, Nguyet Duc village cannot avoid the impact of the flood caused by storm No. 11. To ensure the safety of the people, the authorities have evacuated the elderly, children and people with health problems in Nguyet Duc village to safety. The policy of supporting free residential land for Nguyet Duc households in need of resettlement has been approved by the provincial level, and the project is preparing steps to start construction".
According to information from the People's Committee of Van Ha Ward, the resettlement project for Nguyet Duc village has been around for a long time, but has encountered many problems with regulations on dykes and flood drainage corridors, so the implementation is slow.
Last September, the ward reported to the People's Committee of Bac Ninh province and accordingly, the resettlement project for people in Nguyet Duc fishing village was built on the northern bank of Cau river (in Van Ha ward).
The project has a scale of nearly 5 hectares, with a total investment of 90 billion VND. To date, the government has allocated 30.5 billion VND in capital to implement the project, and has disbursed nearly 1.8 billion VND. Van Ha ward is expected to open a bidding for the project to complete the construction permit in October.
In the project, the government will resettle 139 households, with nearly 500 people without housing and who need to move to the resettlement area of Nguyet Duc village.
