'Cooling room' in the middle of a boarding house as hot as a boiler in Ho Chi Minh City

To cope with the unbearable heat, the woman used a thin sheet to surround her bed in the middle of the rented house. Inside, she turned on the electric fan in the hope of lowering the high temperature to a bearable level.

Room like boiler

At 11:30 a.m., Ms. Huynh Thi Hoa (72 years old) sat in front of her temporary rented room made of corrugated iron and old planks at the foot of Hiep An 2 iron bridge (District 8, Ho Chi Minh City). Under the rusty corrugated iron roof, her room was as hot as a boiler even though it was located on the riverbank.

Ms. Huynh Thi Hoa (72 years old) sits in front of her rented room, avoiding the sweltering heat from the corrugated iron roof. Photo: Ngoc Lai

The room was so hot that even with the fan on full blast, she still felt no cooling. The high temperature made her tired and short of breath. After wiping her face and neck with a wet towel, she sat in front of the door.

She hopes the breeze blowing into the alley will make the space less stuffy and more comfortable.

Opposite Mrs. Hoa's room is the room of a fishmonger about 40 years old. Her room is clean, tiled and looks cool.

However, the heat from the corrugated iron roof exposed to the 40 degree Celsius sun still prevented her from resting inside. She carried the old iron bed out and placed it close to the side of the road - the path leading to other rented rooms - to use as a place to rest at noon.

The boarding house under the iron bridge, where Mrs. Hoa lives, is exposed to the blazing sun. Photo: Ngoc Lai.

The woman said that although the bed encroached on the walkway a little, the people around did not feel uncomfortable. Because they had lived together for many years, they knew each other and were as close as neighbors.

Sometimes, if she wasn't taking a nap, people would come and sit on her bed and chat with her to cool off.

However, the alley led straight onto a dusty residential street. Under the blazing sun, the dust rose up blindingly. Whenever there was wind, the heat from the road would blow into the alley, burning her face.

To cope with the unbearable heat, she covered her bed with a thin sheet. Inside, she turned on the electric fan in the hope of lowering the high temperature to a bearable level.

To limit the heat of the sun, tenants use canvas, umbrellas... to temporarily cover the roof. Photo: Ha Nguyen.

The people in this poor boarding house under the iron bridge all live in rickety, cramped rooms made of corrugated iron and old wood. So when the sun starts to shine, everyone prepares a plan to cope.

Many people choose to clean the room with cold water, open the windows facing the river to let the wind in for ventilation. Others go outside the door, sit and lie down on both sides of the alley to rest…

The younger men chose to leave their rented rooms and sit by the river under the shade of the trees. They were shirtless and placed large plastic cups filled with ice water around them to cool their bodies.

The heat still makes the rented rooms stuffy, people have to go out to the walkway between the rooms to get some fresh air. Photo: Ha Nguyen.

Not far away, despite having their own homes, Mr. Phan Van Giau (71 years old) and Mr. Huynh Van Hung (60 years old), both living in District 8, Ho Chi Minh City, still sat in front of the embankment to avoid the heat. The heat inside the small house was like a boiler, making it impossible for Mr. Giau to eat.

At noon, he could only eat porridge and drink cold water, which made him so uncomfortable that he thought about coping by going to the supermarket to read the newspaper, taking an air-conditioned bus around the city... until the weather cooled down and then going home.

He said: “It was too hot but I didn’t have money to install air conditioning so I had to go out to the embankment to sit. When I got bored, I walked around under the shade of the trees. Under the shade of the trees, the air was cooler than inside the house.

Meanwhile, a fishmonger woman brought an iron bed covered with a thin layer of fabric and placed it on the side of the path between the rented rooms as a place to take a nap. Photo: Ha Nguyen.

I used to think of escaping the heat by going to the supermarket to read books or taking an air-conditioned bus to travel around the city.

If I take a long trip like to Thu Duc City, I can take a nap. Sometimes we even ask the ice delivery person to bring some ice cubes to put around to make the space cooler.”

Many ways to cope

Returning home in the midday sun, Mrs. Tran Thi Ngoc Bich (49 years old) tiredly took off her cloth hat and two thick layers of mask. Her back was drenched in sweat, so she turned on the fan to cool her body. Once her shirt was dry, she turned on the gas stove to cook lunch.

Living alone in a rented room surrounded by old corrugated iron on all four sides, as soon as she leaves the fan, her back is soaked with sweat. Knowing that the weather in Ho Chi Minh City is hot for a long time, with temperatures exceeding 30-40 degrees Celsius, Mrs. Bich tries every way to beat the heat.

The heat was unbearable, so a young man left his rented room and lay on a homemade bed under a shady banyan tree. Photo: Ha Nguyen.

She converted the mezzanine into a layer of insulation by covering it with lots of old newspapers and cardboard. She tried to create a gap in the corrugated iron wall opposite the stairs leading to the mezzanine to create a ventilation area.

Previously, she used to sleep on a mattress placed on the floor. However, in recent days, she has put the mattress away and slept on the tiled floor. She shared: “However, I still cannot sleep immediately like when the weather is not hot yet.

On hot days, the corrugated iron roof and walls absorb heat and have not yet released it, so the room is still very stuffy at night. I often have to open the door and go out to the porch to chat with people, waiting for the room to cool down before going to sleep.

In the same situation, Ms. Ly Thi Hang (born in 1978, renting a room in Xom Cui, Binh Hung Commune, Binh Chanh District, Ho Chi Minh City) also had to sit outside on the porch of her rented house to avoid the heat. Her rented room is located in a newly built row of rented houses but is also roofed with thin corrugated iron so it absorbs heat very quickly.

At the cramped, corrugated iron-roofed boarding house in Xom Củi, many people also left their rooms to sit and lie down in the shade of trees. Photo: Ha Nguyen.

Although she and her husband had spent their own money to buy silver foam insulation to cover the roof to reduce the heat, it was not very effective. At noon, the temperature in the rented room still made her feel stuffy, her body was soaked with sweat.

Unable to bear it any longer, she and her neighbor went out to the front of the house to sit and chat. When the sun was milder and the room was less stuffy, she went in to rest. For Ms. Hang, this was the most feasible way to avoid the heat at the moment.

She did not dare to dream of installing an air conditioner because "the cost of electricity is sometimes almost equal to the cost of the room". She said: "Now, even if I were given an air conditioner, I would not dare install it because it would definitely consume a lot of electricity in such hot weather. Sometimes after installing an air conditioner, the cost of electricity is almost equal to the cost of the room.

I just feel sorry for the children. It's so hot, they can't sleep at noon and are visibly tired. On top of that, many of them have heat rash all over their bodies because of the hot weather and stuffy room.

Mrs. Bich's shirt was drenched in sweat when she returned to her rented room with an old corrugated iron roof in the hot sun. Photo: Ha Nguyen.

Not far away, Mr. Le Minh Hoang (67 years old) also left his rented room and went to the canal bank to get some fresh air. Mr. Hoang had just returned from collecting scrap metal. Today, he could not collect much old cardboard so he did not reinforce the homemade insulation on the ceiling of his rented room.

Over the past few days, he has been constantly asking for and collecting foam boxes and cardboard boxes to cut them into insulation panels and attach them to the ceiling of his rented room. He hopes that this way he can reduce the heat radiating down from the low corrugated iron roof that almost touches people's heads.

He shared: “It’s so hot, I almost go to the canal bank during the day, sit and lie under the trees. At night, I use wet towels to wipe, even apply ice to the tile floor to cool it down before going to sleep. However, it is only at night that the air in the room becomes less stuffy and stuffy.”

In addition to the poor workers who have to rent rooms, those who own their own houses also try to find ways to cool down their living space. During the hottest hours, many people use clean water to sprinkle on the porch and front yard to cool the surrounding space.

The heat also causes many difficulties for office workers. To avoid the scorching heat of over 37-38 degrees Celsius, many people are forced to go to work earlier and come home later than usual.

The harsh sunlight with high UV index has also forced office workers to change some of their living habits. Many people, instead of going out for lunch as usual, have had to choose to cook and bring lunch to the office or order food to be delivered to the workplace.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Huong (37 years old), an office worker in District 3, Ho Chi Minh City, said: "These past few days, every time I pushed open the door of the air-conditioned office and stepped out, I felt like I had just stepped into a scorching desert.

To avoid the heat, I had to eat boxed lunches or order takeout from the expensive restaurants around the office. However, some days during the week I still had to brave the blazing midday sun to pick up my children from school.

Every time I go out, I have to wear a coat, a wide-brimmed hat under my helmet and a face mask.

Original link: https://vietnamnet.vn/phong-giai-nhiet-giua-khu-tro-nong-nhu-lo-hoi-o-tp-hcm-2269203.html

According to Vietnamnet

Source: https://tienphong.vn/phong-giai-nhiet-giua-khu-tro-nong-nhu-lo-hoi-o-tphcm-post1628157.tpo