A salt farmer named Anh from central Vietnam has gone to Denmark to participate in the UN Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen, which opened today, December 8.

“My family has made salt for several generations. Sometimes I heard from TV about climate change. I don’t know exactly what climate change is but I know one thing for sure that the climate in recent times has been abnormal,” Anh said.

“In the past, the weather was dry and sunny in the three summer months but it has been very strange in recent years. There were days when the weather suddenly changed from dry and sunny to rainy and we lost everything in those days,” she added.

“Previously, our family could produce 10 tonnes of salt/year and it was sufficient for us. Recently, our life is very unstable because we can lose our product anytime when sea water encroaches our salt fields. Each salt season (from March to July) my family can produce only 5 tonnes, earning 1.5 million dong only,” she said.

According to Anh, her family has to mend their salt fields very often because of the rise of sea level. “In my hometown, many families have to stop sending their children to school because their earnings from salt fields now is too low due to continuous natural disasters,” Anh said.

“I want to bring the voice of the people in my hometown, which is also the voice of Vietnamese farmers to the conference, hoping that they would have solutions to help us,” she said.

According to Truong Quoc Can, co-ordinator of Actionaid Vietnam, which is sponsoring Anh’s trip to Denmark, Anh is a living evidence of the impact of climate change on poor people.

VietNamNet/Tuoi Tre