Look At Vietnam - The Cuu

During the flood season, cajeput forests are submerged in water.

We visited the flooded region to see impact of the typhoon in the North. We followed the route from Ho Chi Minh City to Moc Hoa Town in Long An Province, Tan Hung, Tan Hong and Hong Ngu in Dong Thap Provine, Tan Chau and Chau Doc in An Giang Province, Hon Dat and Ha Tien in Kien Giang Province.

Co-existing with floods is a normal occurrence in the CuuLongRiverdelta.

For over one month, all the fields in Tan Chau, Chau Doc and Chau Thanh (An Giang Province) and Tan Hong and Hong Ngu ( Dong Thap Province ) were submerged.

The flood water was close to come into some houses-on-stilts. The local people had to build boats and junks to travel.

Nguyen Van Nam in Hamlet 1, Vinh Xuong Commune of Tan Chau District said: “I have rebuilt a junk because it is said that this year’s flood

Commuting by boats in the flood season.

On the way, we saw many mobile markets in service of people in flooded areas. The sellers transported commodities to different places to provide to customers or gathered in groups near the concrete bridges.

Hong Ngu is a central market in the western area of Southern Vietnam. It sells all kinds of cookings of the flood season, such as Sesbania seban, water lily,

Streets in residential quarters are also inundated.

During the flooding, Linh fish was sold at all large markets, including the Tan Chau, Hong Ngu, Chau Doc and Cao Lanh, but its prize varied, from 35,000 VND to 40,000 VND per kilo.

To maintain the people’s normal activities, the authorities of the Cuu Long River delta provinces have developed over 30 “co-existing with the floods” models, mostly in An Giang, Dong Thap, Long An,

Street or river? The same!

Some typical models have proven economically effective. They included cultivating, exploiting and processing aquatic products; growing and processing mushrooms for export; weaving the common water hyacinth, harvesting Sesbania sesban and Bon bon vegetable; producing tools for catching aquatic creatures and providing aquatic product services in the flood season; promoting eco-tourism in the flood season, etc.

A normal scene in the flood season.

We crossed the swift-flowing rivers by ferry to visit Tan Chau, Chau Doc and Hon Dat rural areas, Binh Thien Lake and Tra Su ecological reserve to capture the images of the local people’s daily activities. Binh Thien Lake with clear blue water in An Phu District is the largest natural lake in the western

A normal scene in the flood season.

It lies among Khanh Binh, Khanh An and Nhon Hoi Communes in An Phu District, An Giang Province and near the Binh Di River adjacent to Kandal Province of Cambodia.

In the dry season, the lake’s surface covers about 300ha but during the flood season the surface increases to nearly 900ha. Binh Thien Lake provides a large amount of freshwater to the locals and has the largest number of freshwater fish in the border area.

Boats are an indispensable item of those living in the CuuLongRiverdelta.

We embarked two canoes to follow engineer Nguyen Trung, one of the project’s executors, to measure the currents of the Tien River in Tan Chau Town by ADC current meter, to specify the depth,

Readers may get surprised seeing this girl on a hammock, but to those living in the flood region it is normal.

Trung said that over a two month period, every day his group has to take measurements twice and take 27 samples of mud and sand for analysis.

The project, initiated by Dr. Hoang has been carried out for over two years and is in the final phase, showing the efforts of the State and scientists to improve the life of the residents during the flood season.

It’s really fun to play with water.

This project has improved the life of 270,000 people by providing an effective water management system, thus controlling the flooding, reducing considerably the damages to crops and increasing the output of cultivated plants.

Dykes with spillway dams have been built to let the

Monkey bridges are very helpful for the local people.

The flood-control irrigation programmes have helped increase the food output from 4.7 million tonnes in 1976 to 19.1 million tonnes in 2005, improving the living conditions of the local people.

We left the flooded region in Dong Thap Muoi and Long Xuyen area at the end of September when the Hydro-Meteorological Office announced that storms No. 6, 7 and 8 might cause floods in both the North

Earning a living in the flood region.

The last photographs we took in this region were two houses on a hillock among the vast water in Da Phuoc Commune, An Phu District, An Giang Province. They were the temporary houses of the families of Sau Lon and Phan Thi Ut.

Sau Lon’s family raised ducks to earn their living while Ut’s 14-year-old daughter, Pham Thi Yen Nhi had to leave school to help her parents catch fish and raise cattle to earn their living and pay the school fees of her sisters.

Collecting luffa by boat

VietNamNet/VNP