As one of the oldest jobs that still exists in Vietnam, well diggers in Thanh That District, Hanoi, said that their job is “eating rice in the earth, working in the hades”.

With 20 years of experience, Do Van Minh, 43, from Kim Quan
commune,

Thach That district, said: “To be a well digger, you must be
more

enduring than others. You must be also careful and experienced

in
preparing tools and checking for toxic gas”.

Members in Minh’s group all come from Mo Nong village, Kim Quan

commune. They have worked together for over 20 years. Women

like Chung,
Phuong and Thuy only work on the ground.

member who works underground nearly the whole day.

Air compressors are used to provide air to “pho ca”.

Mrs. Thuy said that in the past, they had to manually pull soil from wells. Now they use winches.

“Pho ca,” soil and brick transporters and winch operator must

harmoniously combine with each other to avoid accidents.

As
underground water resources have been exhausted in Thach That, wells
are dug for over 30m deep to have water. At this depth, the fall of
small gravel may cause an accident, so carefulness is the must of well
diggers. It takes workers tens
of days to dig a well. Customers have to pay fees whether wells have
water or not. Vu Dinh Thuyen, the owner of this well was very nervous
seeing a handful of sand which had just been taken from the well at the
depth of 30m. If diggers reached the sandy layer, they would only need
to dig for several meters more to know whether the well is much of water
or not.

It is hard to seek a
place to discharge soil from wells. Mrs. Phuong

said that sometimes she
had to go a kilometer to discharge soil.

“Pho ca” Minh works at least 10 hours a day underground.

He goes down to the well by this pulley.

Having
been working for over 20 years, Minh still feels comfortable

whenever
he gets back to the earth after hours of working underground.

The “meal on the earth” of well diggers, who work “in the hell”.

Le Anh Dung