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Fish died en masse along an iconic canal in Ho Chi Minh City once again on Sunday after the city was hit by a heavy unseasonal rain.

A large amount of tilapia and carp went belly up along Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe Canal, causing an unpleasant smell, according to the observation of Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reporters.

The situation was exacerbated by garbage in the waterway.

Dead fish float in Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe Canal in Ho Chi Minh City, April 4, 2021. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre

The phenomenon was most serious along the section between Le Van Sy Bridge in District 3 and Bridge No. 1 in Tan Binh District.

The operation of boat tours in Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe Canal was also affected.

“Only a few fish died in the morning,” said Hoang Nguyen Tuong Vy, who resides near the canal in Tan Binh District.

“Following the downpour in the afternoon, the number of dead fish increased significantly.”

The mass fish death results in unpleasant smell along Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe Canal in Ho Chi Minh City, April 4, 2021. Photo : Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre

Multiple environmental staff were tasked with salvaging the dead fish and cleaning up the canal.

The phenomenon is not uncommon as it often occurs whenever the city is hit by a heavy unseasonal rain during the dry season.

Local authorities have tried to regenerate fish resources and purify polluted areas with chemicals, but the situation still recurs every year.

The mass fish death is exacerbated by garbage along Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe Canal in Ho Chi Minh City, April 4, 2021. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre

The mass fish death is exacerbated by garbage along Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe Canal in Ho Chi Minh City, April 4, 2021. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre

The mass fish death results in unpleasant smell along Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe Canal in Ho Chi Minh City, April 4, 2021. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre

The operation of boat tours along Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe Canal is affected by the fish kill. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre

Dead fish are collected in Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe Canal in Ho Chi Minh City, April 4, 2021. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre

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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.

His world changed forever a year ago. Having saved around VND1.5 billion (US$65,000), he went to his friend, a freelance realtor, to ask for advice. Buying a piece of real estate when you have some savings is a no-brainer in Vietnam.

When Thieu heard from the friend about how lucrative being a realtor could be, he was unsettled. Amid the surging property prices, Thieu’s friend had acquired a fortune of nearly 10 billion for reinvestment in just a few years.

That was almost 10 times the amount Thieu had saved over 15 years of hard work and saving. Now he too wanted a piece of that cake, quit his job and became a full-time property agent in August 2020.

After a brief decline because of Covid-19, the real estate market has started to rally once again. Data from online trading site batdongsan.com.vn shows that land prices started to increase at the end of December 2020 and began skyrocketing in February 2021.

A note from the Vietnam Association of Realtors (VAR) said land prices in places like Hanoi’s Son Tay, Hoa Lac and Ba Vi districts increased by half again in the latter half of 2020.

In early 2021, there were incredible rises in Hanoi’s districts of Dong Anh, Hoai Duc and Gia Lam, and in some areas in Quoc Oai, Thach That, and Hoa Lac they had risen five-fold in just 12 months.

Recent developments in the market have become a major topic not just for media headlines but also for enthusiastic chats between super-rich wannabes.

The profit from property is leading to a new wave of novice realtors. VAR said some 300,000 people are working as property agents with only 10 percent qualified to do the job.

Some of them used to be unemployed for a while after the economic slowdown put paid to their permanent jobs.

Almost all freelancers needed to take some risks in the beginning to raise seed money. Some took large loans from banks by mortgaging their assets, others went further and borrowed from anyone willing to lend.

But the insane commissions allayed any possible anxiety.

In this time of economic stagnation, nothing seems to be as lucrative as being a realtor, said Dang Hung Vo, a former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment.

Normally, an agent gets a commission rate of 2 percent for transactions of up to VND2 billion, which means up to VND40 million instantly, and 1.5 percent or less for those above VND2 billion.

Statistics from recruitment platform Careerbuilder.vn shows that a person working in Vietnam earns around 17 million a month. Salaries range from VND4.3-76.9 million.

After a few quick deals, in a month a realtor can earn the equivalent of many years of salaries for an average employee and more than even the highest paid employee’s monthly salary.

One newbie, Quan Tran, bragged about how real estate dealings have helped him become rich faster than any of his college friends.

When he first heard about land prices rising in Lam Ha, Lam Dong Province, he took his house ownership documents to the bank to borrow VND1 billion, borrowed another billion from his wife’s parents, quit his job as a banker, and started as a freelance realtor in Lam Ha.

Within a few months he did several transactions, selling 2000 square meters of land and earning billions of dong. Besides, he owns two pieces of land whose prices have most doubled since he bought them around half a year ago.

Recent bubbles, a cautionary tale

Since the beginning of 2021 property prices in Ha Noi, Phu Yen, Binh Phuoc, Hoa Binh, and Binh Thuan have seen phenomenal rises.

According to property consultancy Savills, globally the real estate market is slowing down but not in Vietnam, which continues to see steady growth.

According to VAR, land prices in HCMC and Hanoi increased by an average of 10 percent in the past 12 months, and by 40-50 percent in rural areas close to these cities.

“Besides the huge demand for accommodation, the vast majority of people still consider real estate the safest and most profitable asset class,” Nguyen Khac Quoc Bao, head of the Fintech Institute at the University of Economics, HCMC, said.

The Ministry of Construction said real estate prices often increase when there are rumors about infrastructure projects planned in an area. They could be new airports, roads, resorts, or golf courses.

In reality, the realtors who move first are also the most likely source of rumors, which suck the greedy and gullible in.

Most transactions are then done in an insane rush.

The bubble bursts after a few weeks as the first realtors leave. Enthusiastic investors are now stuck with the land they have bought and probably a huge loan to the bank. Even if some are willing to sell at a loss there are no more takers.

But Tran and other realtors fully expect price bubbles to occur elsewhere since after all real estate remains the most profitable asset class amid the pandemic.

Earning his first commission in Da Nang this month, Thieu said: “Quitting the office job and becoming a full-time realtor has been my best decision. I bet more and more people will join us, especially when the economy recovers and vaccination proves effective.”

Quan half-jokingly said: “Real estate is king now, much more profitable than any other business. Only drug dealing can perhaps beat it.”

The Japanese club had requested local authorities to let the Vietnamese player enter the country as a foreign expert.

The 28-year-old keeper took off from HCMC’s Tan Son Nhat International Airport and transited at South Korea’s Incheon International Airport before landing at Narita International Airport in Tokyo. He was tested for Covid-19 upon arrival and sent to a quarantine facility, 200 kilometers away.

Lam and the J1 League club had inked a contract in January, though he was unable to fly to Japan to sign the deal in person due to Covid-19 travel restrictions.

Since its first match on Feb. 27 against Kashiwa Reysol in the J1 League 2021 season, Osaka has employed 34-year-old South Korean Kim Jin-hyeo as goalie. Kim is currently the number one keeper for Osaka, having worn the club’s jersey for a decade. After the first eight games, he failed to block seven attacks.

The team lies in fourth place out of 20 clubs with 13 points, six points behind current leaders Kawasaki Frontale.

Andrey Grushin, Lam’s agent, said the contract did not address how many games Lam would appear in. The Vietnamese player will have to compete with Kim and 36-year-old Japanese Kenya Matsui for a chance to be fielded.

According to previous reports, Lam would be wearing the number one jersey, with his name already added to the J1 League club’s locker room.

Lam spent his youth at Spartak Moscow and Dynamo Moscow.

In 2011, he came to Vietnam to play for Hoang Anh Gia Lai. Then, after unsuccessful spells in Laos and Russia, his career finally took off in 2015 when he joined Hai Phong FC.

He retained his excellent form for the next four years, got called up to the national team and has become its number one choice.

In 2019, he joined Muangthong United from Hai Phong FC for $500,000 and played 42 times for the club.

He will be the fourth Vietnamese to play for a Japanese club, after Le Cong Vinh (Consadole Sapporo), Nguyen Tuan Anh (Yokohama FC) and Nguyen Cong Phuong (Mito Hollyhock). Osaka are in J1 League while all three predecessors played in J2 League.

Authorities in Thanh Hoa Province, located in north-central Vietnam, on Saturday reported over 30 metric tons of dead fish in aquaculture cages, in the natural environs of the Ngoc Pond area in Nghi Son Town, and several other locales along the province’s coastline.

The mass fish die-off has killed 25 metric tons of farmed fish on the Ngoc Pond, as well as four metric tons of fish in the natural habitat along the seaside area, according to leader of Nghi Son Town.

A total of 32 out of 55 fishery households in Nghi Son reported severe losses from the incident, local authorities added.

After being notified of the mass fish deaths, the aquaculture and environmental officials of Thanh Hoa Province have arrived at the scene to collect samples of the dead fish and water for further inspection.

Relevant agencies of Nghi Son Town have instructed fish cage farmers to collect death fish and dispose of them properly, harvest the remainder to salvage the financial damage, and distance the fish cages to make space for the living ones.

By Saturday afternoon, residents of Nghi Son Town had reported the cessation of the mass fish deaths.

Nghi Son officials are still investigating the cause of the fish kill.

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