February madhe 28 divas ka astat

After a sudden downpour on April 4, Nguyen Tien Dung, 40, and his colleagues at the state-owned Ho Chi Minh City Urban Environment Co., Ltd (Citenco) had to spend two hectic days removing dead fish from the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal, which flows through Districts 1, 3, Binh Thanh, Phu Nhuan, and Tan Binh.

They collected 14 tons of fish from a three-kilometer section of the 8.5-km (5.28 miles) canal, making it one of the most serious such incidents in almost a decade since Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe was cleaned.

Dung and 20 others had rushed to the scene at 3:30 in the morning after being informed that dead fish were floating all over the canal.

He said: “Even the previous evening I had noticed a lot of dead fish in the water and its change of color. Though I’d come prepared, I was still shocked to see so many fish belly up all over the canal.”

Since 2012, after taking over the job of cleaning the canal, he has been taking out dead fish almost every year soon after the rains arrive, but what he saw that morning left him dismayed: the fish covered almost the entire water surface visible between garbage and water hyacinth plants.

Dung and his team had to work as fast as possible since the huge volume of dead fish posed a serious threat to the water environment.

The city Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s fisheries division provided a clear explanation for the mass death.

It said the sudden heavy rains flushed out a large volume of wastewater lying in the drains, which then covered the canal surface and significantly reduced the oxygen in the water.

The sudden rush of wastewater also stirred the layer of sludge at the bottom, which usually contains toxic gases. The gases were released and they rose up and dissolved in the water.

“The dual impact from below and above led to a sudden change in the fish’s living environment and killed them,” the division said.

Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe was once arguably the most polluted water body in the city.

A project to dredge and clean it began in 1993 at a cost of VND1.6 trillion ($69.3 million). Embankments and roads along its two banks were built and households living along it were relocated.

Ten years later an even bigger clean-up was undertaken, this time with sewers built to ensure wastewater was no longer released into the canal, with over $300 million provided by the World Bank.

But the story of fish dying en masse in the year’s first rains has become a regular one, the worst being in 2016, when 70 tons were collected.

Jolted by this, in 2017 the Steering Center for Urban Flood Control Program proposed installing an oxygen system in the canal at a cost of VND134 billion to save the fish.

But since it costs VND99 million ($4,290) a day to operate the system, the proposal remains on paper.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment said the cost is unacceptable since the main function of the canal is to drain the city and not act as a fish farm.

According to the fisheries division, to avoid the annual fish deaths, the city needs to install a system to collect and treat wastewater all along the canal at a cost of VND40 trillion ($1.73 billion).

And with authorities still unable to arrive at a decision, Citenco has come up with its own temporary solution for the problem: reducing the canal’s fish population by catching them and releasing them in other rivers.

Truong Van Ho, head of the garbage collection team, said it is necessary for the company and his team to receive timely warnings so that they could shut the drains and let rainwater dilute the residual wastewater before flushing it into the canal.

A redemptorist monastery with a typical French colonial architecture that is one of the ancient religious buildings in Da Lat.

Most of them were built during the French colonial period after the French founded the city as a resort town to get away from the humid, hot climate in the south.

Monasteries with arched windows and balconies with large glass doors are European in design, but are also in harmony with the gentle rhythm of the city.

Some monasteries are still places of prayer, while the rest have been assigned to state units for maintenance and repair or have been changed to become tourist attractions.

New life

The most typical of these is the Redemptorist monastery, which is now being used as a biological museum managed by the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) Biological Institute.

The former monastery, built in 1952, is located in the middle of a pine forest on Tung Lam Hill, seven kilometres from Da Lat.

The building was constructed with the typical symmetrical French architecture. At the centre of the building stands a cross with the Latin inscription “Copiosa Apud Eum Redemptio”, often translated as “With Him is plentiful Redemption”.

The monastery is built of solid stone. Each wall and brick is imprinted with time and from the back of the building, you can see a panoramic view of the city.

At the time of its construction, the monastery was only the second stone Catholic building in the country after Phat Diẹm Church in the northern province of Ninh Binh.

It served as a place for Redemptorists, a Catholic congregation of missionaries, to worship and fulfill their missions.

Walking inside the monastery you can see classrooms arranged side by side along the corridors of the building.

The building consists of five floors with 120 rooms. The second floor now serves as the biology museum, which has seven display rooms and six storage rooms. Each room is divided into areas for displays of stuffed mammals, birds, reptiles, plants and others.

The collection of the museum includes 58 species of animals, including 38 rare species listed in Vietnam’s Red Book.

The former Redemptorist monastery now serves as a biology museum with seven display rooms of stuffed mammals, birds, reptiles, plants and others. VNS Photo Xuan Dang

Thanks to the beauty of the monastery, it imparts a nostalgic and mysterious feeling. It seems that at any angle or location in the monastery is a wonderful scene for a photo.

“This is my first time visiting this place. I’m very impressed with the architecture. I also took some great photos here with my family. It’s good to see that abandoned monasteries like this are maintained and used as a tourist destination,” Phuong Thanh, 21, a tourist from Nha Trang City, told Việt Nam News.

The architecture of the monastery impresses visitors. VNS Photo Xuan Dang

Hidden gem

Some old monasteries in Da Lat with significant architectural values have been repaired to change their purpose of use.

An abandoned monastery located between Tran Quang Dieu and Hung Vuong streets is one.

The dirt path leading to the monastery makes it quite a hidden gem. Located in the north of the city and covering more than seven hectares, the chapel and residential quarters of the Franciscan monastery sit on a hill about 7 kilometres from the city centre.

For years, the iconic chapel has been an inspiration for Vietnamese artists and photographers, appearing in countless works of art.

An abandoned Franciscan monastery is one of the oldest and most valuable religious buildings in Da Lat. Photo Baolamdong.vn

Le Tu, head of Lam Dong Province’s Association of Architects, said that even though the monastery is not classified as a heritage, architects appreciate it for its historic architectural value.

The monastery complex was designed by French architects Alexandre Leonard and Paul Veysseyre in the late 1930s and early 1940s, marking the onset of Benedictine missionaries from the West making their way to Vietnam.

The architectural style of the chapel has a combination of the West and East with an Eastern-style tiled roof, and windows and main door bearing the typical Western Gothic architecture.

In 1954, the missionaries left the complex in the hands of Franciscan nuns before moving to Hue in the central region to set up the Thien An Monastery.

In the following years, the nuns enlisted the help of Vietnamese architect Pham Khanh Chu to design additional classrooms behind the existing complex, known as the Viet Nu Commercial School, in 1969.

In 1979, the seven-hectare complex was handed over to the government. It was eventually abandoned for several years before becoming the campus for the HCM City University of Architecture in Da Lat.

At one point, nearly 20 families illegally occupied the chapel but were eventually moved out by local authorities.

Restoration plan

The complex is now under restoration to become a campus of the HCM City University of Architecture.

The project, co-headed by Huy Hoang Company and the university, started by the end of February.

The former ancient monastery is currently under restoration. VNS Photo Xuan Dang

A representative of HCM City University of Architecture told Tuổi Trẻ (Youth) newspaper that the university has plans to restore the site.

“We see the complex as a meaningful and valuable heritage site. Restoration costs are much more than rebuilding, but we must protect this significant landmark.”

Associate Professor Le Van Thuong, rector of the university, said the chapel area and the dorm for monks will be preserved in their original state. Damaged parts such as doors and the roof will be repaired or replaced but will be consistent with the overall structure.

“We will keep the original architecture and materials of the building as much as possible. Only damaged and deteriorated places will be replaced with new materials. The paint will be the original colours,” Thuong said.

When the work is completed, the chapel will become the university hall, while the dormitory area of ​​the monastery will remain as the residential function. The classroom area will become a lecture hall for students, Thuong said.

Ninh Viet Anh, teacher at HCM City University of Architecture, said that for works with historical architectural significance​, conservation must be carefully considered.

With conservation projects such as these, the city can keep its unique architectural features from the French colonial period and continue to be a popular tourist destination.

VNS

A furious fire killed three workers on the spot at a factory in the northern Vietnamese province of Bac Ninh on Friday night.

The blaze broke out and spread over an area of nearly 1,000 square meters at the second floor of the factory of Dreamtech Vietnam Co., Ltd at the VSIP Industrial Park in Tien Du District at around 11:00 pm on the same night.

Firefighters immediately arrived at the site upon the report of the case but found it difficult to access to the affected area. They needed about one hour to put the fire under control.

Three workers — 28-year-old D.T.T.H. from the same province, 32-year-old M.V.K. from Tuyen Quang Province and 31-year-old N.V.T. from Thai Binh Province — were found dead at the scene.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the incident and calculating damages.

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Eight Vietnamese people who recently returned from abroad have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, raising the total number of patients in the country to 2,781, the Ministry of Health reported on Saturday evening.

Illustrative photo

According to the ministry’s report, the newly-reported patients include five men and three women aged between 24-38 who returned from Japan, Romania, Russia, and Cambodia. They were sent to quarantine areas in Danang City and Khanh Hoa and Kien Giang provinces upon arrival and are now being treated at local hospitals and healthcare centres.

With these new infection cases, the number of Covid-19 patients in Vietnam has increased to 2,781, including 910 locally-transmitted cases reported since the new outbreak started in Hai Duong on January 28.

As of 6 pm on April 16, a total of 2,475 Covid-19 patients had recovered and been discharged from hospital. There have been 35 deaths, most of them being the elderly with serious underlying diseases.

At present, over 40,000 people who had close contact with Covid-19 patients or returned from virus-hit areas are being monitored at hospitals, quarantine facilities, and at home.

Members of the Bahrain team arriving in Nepal

Nepal closed its borders in March and grounded international flights just ahead of the busy spring climbing season, devastating the local tourism sector.

But an 18-member party from Bahrain were given permission to climb the 8,163-metre (26,781-feet) Manaslu, and the 6,119-metre Lobuche.

The ban on foreign tourists is in place until October.

Mingma Sherpa, of Seven Summit Treks, told AFP the team — including three Britons — would quarantine in a Kathmandu hotel for a week before flying via helicopter to the climbing base camp.

More than 50 Sherpas will take part in the expedition, he added.

The identity of the royal climber was not disclosed.

The Bahrain Royal Guard team is next year planning to climb Mount Everest.

The only other team with a permit for the autumn season is an all-Nepali expedition planning to summit 7129-metre Baruntse.

Nepal re-opened its mountains — including Everest — in late July ahead of the autumn climbing season and in anticipation of international flights resuming in mid-August.

But a jump in virus infections in recent weeks saw the government delay allowing flights.

Limited international flights resumed this month, but only for citizens and foreign diplomats.

The country of 28 million people has recorded an average of 1,000 daily infections since August, for a total of more than 58,000 cases and 379 deaths.

By Ngan Thuy Ngoc