Anguish as mekong deltas annual floods continue to dry up vnexpress international

Nguyen Trong Binh

An endless stream of people driving motorbikes and cars from various provinces in the Mekong Delta like Hau Giang, Soc Trang, Bac Lieu, Ca Mau, and An Giang flooded the roads near my sister’s house in Vinh Long Province: They had come to see the inauguration of the My Thuan Bridge.

I was one of them.

Excited at the prospect of seeing the country’s first cable-stayed bridge, one that spans the Tien River, a major branch of the Mekong, to link Vinh Long and Tien Giang, I had gone to my sister’s house, eight kilometers from the bridge, the previous day, and got up early the next day for the inauguration.

Smartphones had yet to make an appearance, and I did not have anything to record the scenes. But for the first time in my life I saw that many people gathered at one place. Almost all roads leading to the bridge and the bridge were gridlocked. There were people everywhere.

On the sides of the roads leading to the bridge, locals were selling iced tea and instant noodles to the visitors from noon to late night.

Due to the gridlock, many got stuck for a long time under the scorching sun of southern Vietnam’s dry season, but everybody looked happy, talking and smiling and patiently waiting for their turn to cross the bridge.

The atmosphere made me feel like the bridge had become wings for the entire Mekong Delta to fly high.

Almost a week after My Thuan Bridge opened to traffic, the media and the public still talked about the event with unprecedented excitement.

When I returned the next day to Can Tho University, my teacher read out to us a poem he had written hailing the bridge. He could not hide his pride, and believed that from that moment the delta would thrive.

The reality has been bitterly different.

Twenty years on the delta, where the Mekong River splits into nine major distributaries before reaching the sea, has had several more cable-stayed bridges.

Most recently the Vam Cong Bridge between Dong Thap Province and Can Tho City opened in 2019 after six years of construction and repairs, and will replace the 100-year-old ferry service across the river.

But the delta has failed to “fly high” as its residents had hoped.

Facilitated by its natural terrain and weather conditions, it has for generations been an agriculture and aquaculture hub that meets not just domestic demand but also serves exports, yet it has remained a laggard in socio-economic development.

A new report by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management in Ho Chi Minh City said in the last 10 years more than 1.3 million people have emigrated from the delta .

According to the 2019 census, the delta had the highest emigration rate among the country’s six distinct regions.

In the five years between April 2014 and April 2019 45 out of 1,000 people had left.

The average for the rest of the country was less than half that: 22.

Those who left cited a worsening climate that no longer allows them to grow crops normally whereas HCMC and its nearby provinces offer them jobs in the services and industrial sectors.

The economic significance of the region has gradually diminished, with its contribution to the country’s economic growth declining steeply from three decades ago.

Spanning more than 3.9 million hectares and with 13 provinces and a city and population of 20 million, a fifth of Vietnam’s, it now accounts for 17.7 percent of the country’s GDP.

There have been so many ideas and proposals to rescue the delta but poor traffic infrastructure is a major bottleneck, and for years the delta has been waiting for investment to be prioritized to mitigate that.

It is the only one of the six socio-economic regions not to have the railroad, not to mention the fragmented and unsynchronized road and waterway networks.

The other five regions are the northern mountains, the Red River Delta, the north central-central coast, the Central Highlands, and the southeast.

Investment in the delta’s traffic infrastructure accounted for only 12.5 percent of the nation’s total in the 2011-15 period.

In the next five years it increased to more than 15 percent or VND65 trillion ($2.8 billion).

Meanwhile, 80 percent of the goods produced there has to be transported to HCMC for domestic distribution and export.

The lack of infrastructure has acted as a drag on investment and economic and tourism development.

“The Mekong Delta is home to a dense network of waterways” is what we learn in school.

That means bridges such as My Thuan and, together with them, an extensive network of roads are what it needs because transport by boat takes much more time than by road.

For the last decade or so the sight of thousands of people getting stuck under the scorching sun when returning back to Ho Chi Minh City and nearby provinces after the Lunar New Year and other holidays has been a recurring one.

Vehicles stuck in a traffic jam on Rach Mieu Bridge in Ben Tre Province in 2019. Photo by VnExpress/Hoang Nam.

National Highways 1A and 50 are the only major links between HCMC and the delta. And in the 20 years since My Thuan Bridge was built, only one expressway has been built to connect the region with the outside world.

That one expressway, HCMC-Trung Luong, only recently got an extension, a section called Trung Luong-My Thuan that now runs 51 km (32 miles), but it took 12 years to complete after a plethora of delays.

I still have my teacher’s poem, but I have stopped dreaming and my aspirations are now more realistic.

Consolidating a transport network that is scientific and modern, both in the water and on land, both highways and railways, is admittedly a big challenge in terms of resources and management, but that will be the only way for us to resolve the ‘rich land, poor people’ paradox that is the delta.

*Nguyen Trong Binh is a teacher at Cuu Long University in the Mekong Delta’s Vinh Long Province. The opinions expressed are his own.

It was around 11 p.m. and there was a motorbike parked on the side of the bridge. Then Hua Nhan Hau saw her.

The young woman was crying her heart out, standing outside the railing and looking down at the fast-flowing river below.

Hau knew he could not afford to show any panic or do anything in haste.

The 58-year-old guard had more than ten years of experience working as a guard on the Can Tho Bridge that connects Can Tho City and Vinh Long Province.

He approached her slowly and picked up a conversation. “It’s quite late already. What are you still doing out here?”

The woman cried even louder. Hau put aside his patrol duty, sat on the ground, and began the “reluctant task” of trying to talk people out of taking the last step, using all the counseling and persuasive powers at his disposal.

His sympathy and calmness had its intended effect. The girl remained sitting on the other side of the barrier, but started talking.

“I live in Ben Tre Province and the man I love studies at the Can Tho University. After I drove all the way here to visit him, he refused to see me. He probably wants to leave me. I don’t see any meaning in life anymore,” she said.

Reflecting on that situation, Hau said: “I am a bit hot tempered and by initial impulse was to scold her. But I held back my anger and started to ask more questions and gave her advice.”

Hua Nhon Hau patrolling the Can Tho Bridge, Can Tho City, on January 14, 2021. Photo by Vnexpress/Diep Phan.

Years of experience in dealing with suicide attempts told him that if the distraught person was still answering him, she/he still lacked the “courage” to take the final leap.

However, he needed to remain calm and gentle to avoid attracting the attention of others. There was still a big risk that the girl might panic, feel embarrassed and jump off the bridge.

Sitting on bridge that runs nearly three km over the Hau River, he listened patiently and empathetically to the girl’s love story. His hands and voice were shaking after chatting for more than two hours in the cold weather.

“If he no longer loves you then your suicide will be meaningless since it will not touch him. He will soon have a new lover. Come with me back to the guard booth. I will make you a cup of hot tea and we will continue our conversation there.”

The girl accepted his invitation. Hau was still anxious, in the back of his mind, that she would be harboring suicidal thoughts. So he spent his entire shift listening to her confession and giving her advice.

“It was fortunate that she climbed back in. There have been many cases where I sat on the bridge with a person considering suicide for so long that I would be desperate to pee, but couldn’t dare leave their side for fear they would end up jumping.”

After his shift ended at 5 a.m. the next day, Hau drove along with the girl to make sure that she completely and safely crossed the Can Tho Bridge before heading back to his home.

This one of dozens of suicide attempts he had managed to prevent so far, Hau said.

The Can Tho Bridge security team consists of 50 people who take turns patrolling and handling issues that crop up including regulating traffic case of accidents and other incidents.

Discouraging people from committing suicide is not part of their official job description, but they do not have the option of doing nothing, of course.

Biting the hand that saves you

While his latest rescue took a lot of time, Hau was not hurt in the process. That happened last year.

He was on his regular night-shift patrol when he saw a man and a woman having a heated argument. The woman climbed over to the other side of the bridge railing and tried to jump, but was pulled back by the man. Hau rushed to help and got hold of her hands and asked pedestrians passing by to call his colleagues for help. As he held the girl’s hand, he suffered a sharp, bleeding bite.

“It hurt me really bad, but I didn’t dare to let go because she would have jumped immediately,” Hau recalled.

His colleagues arrived and helped with directing the traffic and clearing the place of crowds after calling for police assistance. After more than an hour of exhausting efforts trying to keep the girl safe, she was handcuffed by the police and taken straight to the hospital.

Pham Tan Thanh (sitting down), his colleagues and passersby hold on to a woman with family problems attempting to jump off the Can Tho Bridge earlier this year. Photo courtesy of Thanh.

Pham Tan Thanh, 42, vice captain of the maintenance and security team of Can Tho Bridge for more than three years, said he has a different approach in dealing with suicide attempts. He rushes to act now, remembering an incident two years ago when he could not stop a man from committing suicide.

Now, when Thanh sees a person sitting on the railing trying to jump off the bridge, the engineer does not hesitate. He rushes over to grab the person’s hands and holds on tightly even as he advises and tries to pull that person back.

“The outcome can be irreversible if I am just one second late,” said the Vinh Long native.

In the incident two years ago, a young man agreed to get back. But when Thanh thought he had successfully saved the man and let go of his hands, the man climbed over the railing in a flash and jumped into the river.

“We understand that when they’ve made up their mind, it can’t be helped. If not here, they would have done it elsewhere. If not today, they would do it another day. But, even if we sense that determination, our conscience wouldn’t allow us to leave. We have to save them.”

He said most people wanting to commit suicide at the bridge have family, love or financial problems. Every year, after a major football tournament, more people come here to commit suicide, so the guards have to remain more alert and work even harder, Thanh said.

“We do this for our conscience without being asked to do it or getting paid for it. Every time we save a life, we also have to go to local police station to write reports and act as witnesses. It might be a bit time consuming, but we don’t mind,” Thanh said.

Thanh (right) and a teammate take a break at their guard booth at one end of the Can Tho Bridge. Photo by VnExpress/Diep Phan.

As an employee of the old ferry terminal, when the Can Tho Bridge opened to traffic, Huynh Thanh Truc, 45, was transferred here as a guard. Over the past 10 years, he has rescued about 20 people who intended to jump off the bridge.

At times, he would spend his own money to invite the people he’d just saved to have breakfast, drink coffee and then persuade them to give him a relative’s phone number for the person to be picked. He would only return to work once he had handed over the person.

“Once, we saved a sad, pregnant woman whose husband did not care about her coming here. She decided to have the baby. The next day, a family member brought us fruits in gratitude,” Truc said.

Having spent nearly half of his life by the Hau river, Truc has many times seen canoes searching for bodies when he looks down from the bridge during his shift.

The guards feel the pain in their hearts when they see family members on both sides of the river bank crying and calling out their children’s and grandchildren’s names.

“In some extreme cases, during rainy months, many families rent boats to look for their relatives for a whole week. Such scenes make me deeply sad. My colleagues and I don’t want to see such pain.”

Am House, t he 184-square-meter villa with a thatched roof was selected by five architecture experts, based on its creative design, use of materials, connection with nature and lifestyle.

“Combining neutral tones, natural materials, and indoor/outdoor living, Am House offers a reprieve from the bustle of Ho Chi Minh City,” according to award organizers.

Am House features a private koi pond. Photo by Hiroyuki Oki.

The villa, located on a 3,500-square-meter plot, is owned by a marketing director of a large corporation in Saigon, who was looking for respite from the urban rat race.

Three architectural firms cooperated on the five-block villa, its sheet steel roof covered by a signature layer of thatch.

“It combines tradition with modern detail, and has the added benefit of acting as insulation and therefore reducing the solar impact to maintain a comfortable indoor temperature,” award organizers commented.

Inside, wood ceilings, concrete flooring, and wood-layered walls help reduce the heat on hot summer days.

It cost the owner VND2.5 billion ($108,295) to construct and furnish.

In December 2020, Am House was included in the top 100 houses by Archdaily, a leading architectural website.

Dwell Magazine, based in San Francisco and boasting around 12 million readers worldwide, is a publication dedicated to modern design. Its annual Dwell Design Awards, with eight categories, aims to honor the most inspiring projects that showcase innovative solutions and creative, context-driven design.

Immeasurable support from international organisations, countries, and locals helps to cope with the crisis

Over the past week, photographs and videos of relief trucks pouring into Central Vietnam, causing congestion on National Highway 1A passing the natural disaster-struck provinces of Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Quang Ngai, and Phu Yen have taken over social media.

Just like these images, the flame of solidarity and compassion has spread across the nation, bringing tears to the eyes of Vietnamese people abroad and inspiring international friends to show support for Vietnam’s plight.

Various donation activities to support the people of Central Vietnam in overcoming the aftermath of floods and landslides have been organised across the globe. International organisations and many countries were quick to send cash and materials for disaster relief and help ungrounded Vietnamese find their footing again.

As soon as the first storms passed, the US government issued a statement to express its sympathy to all those affected by the tragedy.

According to a statement by US Embassy to Vietnam, the US government is ready to assist Vietnam in overcoming the flood damage and we extend our deepest sympathy to all those affected by this tragedy, including thousands of displaced person.

On October 17, the US Ambassador to Vietnam Daniel Kritenbrink also announced an initial disaster response aid worth $100,000 to meet urgent humanitarian needs in communities affected by typhoon Linfa.

Kritenbrink added that he wanted to express his concern for people with disabilities in affected provinces because they are among the most vulnerable groups when disasters occur. They are typically at home, have less access to information, and cannot fully benefit from preparedness and evacuation procedures.

It is estimated that the Vietnamese central provinces affected by typhoon Linfa have more than 200,000 disabled people, 61,000 of whom are directly affected by this disaster.

Joint efforts

Besides the United States, many countries such as Japan, South Korea, China, and Australia, among others have expressed sympathy to Vietnam.

During his recent visit to Vietnam, new Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide said that Japan had decided to provide emergency support materials to Vietnam in order to minimise the damage caused by the heavy rains in the central region.

Meanwhile, the South Korean foreign affairs ministry also announced humanitarian aid worth $300,000 to help Vietnam overcome the heavy damage suffered this year.

On October 23, the Chinese Embassy said that the Red Cross Society of China would donate $100,000 to assist Vietnam in overcoming the floods. “We believe that the Vietnamese people will definitely overcome the natural disasters, quickly stabilise their lives, and restore production,” a statement read.

Australia has also decided to provide emergency aid of AU$100,000 ($70,100) to help Vietnam overcome the consequences of this year’s natural disasters.

To help Vietnam deal with the calamities in the region, international organisations including UNICEF, the UNDP, the EU, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced that they are sending support packages worth nearly $3 million, according to the Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control.

The EU also announced on October 28 that it would support Vietnam with €1.3 million ($1.5 million) to provide emergency humanitarian assistance.

The EU package will provide essential supplies to the most vulnerable families in Quang Binh, Quang Tri, and Thua Thien-Hue, helping them to meet their basic needs and maintain their daily life.

“This grant is testament to our solidarity with the Vietnamese people, many of whom have lost their homes, livelihoods, and belongings in the devastation of the floods,” said Olivier Brouant, who is in charge of the EU’s humanitarian response programme in the Mekong Delta region.

The grant, provided through the EU’s Acute Large Emergency Response Tool programme, will assist the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), Save the Children, and World Vision in its implementation of relief measures.

This work is set to include distributing sanitary cleaning equipment and other necessary relief supplies, securing access to potable water, cleaning facilities, and enhancing sanitation.

Cash will also be provided to residents to help them buy food and other necessities. The most vulnerable groups, including single mothers and people with disabilities, will receive special attention.

Overcoming adversity

On October 26, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung met Andrew Jeffries, country director of the ADB in Vietnam; Rana Flowers, chief representative of UNICEF and the FAO in Vietnam; and Caitlin Wiesen, chief representative of the UNDP in Vietnam.

Flowers said UNICEF raised $160,000 to provide emergency assistance for water, personal hygiene, sanitation, health, nutrition, and education. She also pledged to continue to support people, with specific attention paid to the health of women and children.

Wiesen of the UNDP noted the Green Climate Fund (GCF) programme to build more than 3,200 safe houses over the past two years, which has brought about positive results in ensuring people’s livelihoods that have been disturbed by floods and storms.

She added the UNDP will continue to coordinate with the GCF and the ADB to implement disaster relief programmes in Vietnam with capital of about $30 million.

Meanwhile, Jeffries from the ADB said that after a quick survey on the damage and need for relief of the people of Vietnam’s central provinces, the bank is considering starting an Emergency Assistance Package worth around $3 million. Jeffries added the ADB would try to approve the package as soon as possible.

DPM Dung said, “The support of international organisations at this time as well as over the years shows the concern and trust of international organisations in Vietnam and has contributed to improving Vietnam’s capacity to cope with natural disasters. With their help, we will soon be able to overcome the consequences of these natural disasters, quickly stabilise people’s lives, and restore production for people in areas damaged by various natural disasters.”

By Thai An