For hundreds of years, Khmerethnic minority people living near the Cambodian border have harvested grey sedge to make handicrafts for daily use. It is a common sight to see locals harvesting the plants in Phu My Commune, Kien Giang's Giang Thanh District. Before going to work in the fields, farmers wear knee-length socks to protect themselves from leeches. The grey sedge is harvested by holding the top and pulling up instead of using a sickle to cut as elsewhere in the Mekong Delta. The farmers also wear gloves to prevent scratching their hands when working with the plants. Thi Vay of Phu My Commune, who has been harvesting grey sedge for nearly 10 years, said people harvest the plant from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. every day after they finish working in rice plantation and animal husbandry. The plant is sorted immediately after being plucked out of the earth. Vay only keeps the green, hard plants, while the yellow, withering ones are discarded. … [Read more...] about Khmer people’s grey sedge handicraft village in the Mekong Delta
8 remarkable animals that saved peoples lives
Rescuers install zip line to get people stranded in Central Highlands flood
Prolonged heavy rains have inundated Lac Duong District. The flooding swept away the bridge over Da Nghit Stream, trapping 41 people on a farm, including seven children. Major Doan Manh Toan, deputy head of the province's fire police and rescue service, and dozens of his men put up the rope over the stream using pulleys. Major Toan and a colleague put on a safety harness on one of the marooned people before rescuers on the other side of the stream pull him in by hand. "The rain continued to pour for days," the victim said. "On early Thursday morning, floodwaters made the bridge collapse. We were trapped and completely surrounded by water." A man crosses the stream on the zip line. The rescue team had attempted to use motorboats but the rapid flow of the water precluded it. After five hours all 41 people were successfully rescued from the farm. Toan said; "The rope was the only solution at the time amid the pouring rain and rising flood level. The situation was very tricky." In Bao … [Read more...] about Rescuers install zip line to get people stranded in Central Highlands flood
In Saigon’s backyard, migrants eke out a living on the edge of civilization
A group of migrants from the southwest of Saigon live on a piece of vacant land in Phong Phu Commune, Binh Chanh District. They have been hanging on to the fringe of urban life for over a decade in shacks without electricity or clean water. They make a living from growing vegetables such as cucumbers, gourds and bitter melons. “It started with just a few people but now we have around 20 families. We have no land to work back home,” said Nguyen Thi Ba, 74, from Can Tho. A company that owns the land rents it out to the migrants. Vo Thi Mai, 51, from Can Tho, said she works from dawn to dusk and sells her crops at a wholesale market every two months. A pit lined with canvas is used to collect rainwater for washing and showers. People here have to buy bottled water to drink and cook with. This 23-year-old woman and her 34-year-old husband from Can Tho take a shower in a pond as there's no tap water. … [Read more...] about In Saigon’s backyard, migrants eke out a living on the edge of civilization
Saigon ward residents live in a house of cards
Standing next to what used to be her house, Truong Thi Binh, 42, says: "Now it's nothing but some kind of a pond. Water rises by almost two meters down there." Her house used to stand on Lam Hoanh Street, An Lac Ward, Binh Tan District. "With the water ferns and trash, mosquitoes have made it their home, so we have had to remove the roof to make it a bit airy," she says. All that is left of the sunk house now is its core framework and cracked walls, and what used to be its roof is just several hand spans above the street. Truong Thi Binh, a resident of An Lac Ward in HCMC's Tan Binh District, looks down at what used to be her house. Photo by VnExpress/Ha An. People in her neighborhood frequently comment that if people from elsewhere visited the place, they would not believe that it was a part of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s biggest city and economic hub. An Lac Ward covers 4.59 square kilometers to the west of the city. Over the past ten years, it has dropped 81.4 … [Read more...] about Saigon ward residents live in a house of cards
How can Vietnamese people manage a water supply monopoly?
Duc Hoang The most potent weapon of a consumer is to stop consuming. How do we then answer the question: "If we don't use their water, who else will provide it to us?" My family was among those troubled recently over the fact that our son's school was located just one kilometer from the burnt Rang Dong light bulb warehouse (that leaked 15-27 kilos of mercury into the air). Now we've got a new one: polluted tap water and the difficulty in getting bottled water. Since my family and I are not the only ones severely affected by this, since there are millions of us, one would expect the company responsible for the crisis to be hit hard by it too. However, the stocks of Song Da Water Investment Joint Stock Company (code: VCW) on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) still went up on Tuesday. There was no chain reaction following a public crisis like what one would see in a movie, where a negative news about a company spreads and causes its stock to spiral … [Read more...] about How can Vietnamese people manage a water supply monopoly?
