Visiting Ruong village

Fortunately, not only in Ruong village, after the heavy damage caused by the natural disaster caused by storm No. 5, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee declared a natural disaster emergency in Bat Mot commune, creating favorable conditions to concentrate investment resources to overcome the consequences of the storm. And up to now, the province has allocated a budget to repair and restore a number of damaged and ruined works, including the road leading to Ruong village. But Ruong village is still there, with endless worries about livelihoods...

The road to Ruong village, Bat Mot border commune is bumpy after the storm.

They have been there for decades, attached to and building the green color for this borderland to become more prosperous every day. But it has never been easy, all the efforts and wealth of people after people, generation after generation suddenly disappeared after just one flood. From houses, ponds, to the fields they worked so hard to reclaim, cultivate...

Early winter, fog covered the border area. More than 2 months had passed, the traces of the historic flood caused by storm No. 10 were still there, jagged and devastated. The concrete road leading from the center of Bat Mot border commune to Ruong village was like a swaying forest vine across the hillside, the foot of the stream was the only way for people to communicate with the outside world - now broken and crumbling. Only a few of the more than 4 kilometers of road still had a foundation. Most of it had been carried away by the fierce red water.

Excavators and bulldozers had to roar urgently to level and dig a temporary path for children to get to school on time. Meanwhile, people's goods remained there, and motor vehicles could not enter or exit.

A corner of Ruong village, Bat Mot commune.

In 2025, three natural disasters hit Ruong village. First was heavy rain causing serious landslides after storm No. 3, then came the impact of storm No. 5 and the worst was flash floods after the impact of storm No. 10. All assets and capital, from rice grains, vegetables in the fields, to chickens and ducks in the coops, were swept away. The village was in a particularly difficult situation, and with the flood, difficulties piled on top of difficulties.

But this is not the first time that people in this border village have suffered such a terrible disaster. Since the land reclamation and establishment of the village around 1950, they have been constantly fleeing floods in poverty and hardship. Just 8 years ago, the historic flood of 2017 left Ruong village like a lonely mark on the map, cut off and isolated for nearly a week. Many officers and soldiers of the border guards I met that year had to struggle to carry bags of rice and boxes of instant noodles, struggling all day along the slippery hillside into the village to supply them. And until now, people in Ruong village still tell each other about their feelings of hardship, poverty and human love, the love between the army and the people.

Many sections of the road from Bat Mot commune center to Ruong village were seriously damaged by floods.

The house of the Party cell secretary and village chief, Ruong Luong Van La (born in 1990), located at the top of the mountain, has just completed renovations after being damaged by the storms and winds. He sighed and said: “What the people have built since the historic flood in 2017 has almost been lost after the last three floods. Now we have to start over again. What we are most worried about right now is the livelihood, the food and clothing for the people.”

How can we not worry, when after the flood, not only did the mountains collapse and the roads were washed away, but the fields they had worked so hard to reclaim for their livelihood were also gone. The fields along both sides of the stream were built up after the flood in 2017, once golden in the ripe rice seasons, but now only gray pebbles remained. Party cell secretary Luong Van La looked far away at the fields and let out a sigh: "The fields are our food and our clothes. Now"...

More than 2 hectares of rice fields were washed away after the flood, according to the young party cell secretary's rough estimate. Here, looking up is steep mountains, looking down is deep abysses, where can we find flat land, gentle hills to convert into rice fields, and irrigation systems... Losing their fields, people think of forests, but the income from contracting to care for and protect forests is not abundant. Each year, 1 hectare of forest is supported with about 600 thousand VND. Meanwhile, the household that contracts the most forest area is only about 30 hectares, while the household that contracts the least is 15 hectares. Besides fields and forests, they have nothing else.

Even before the flood, the total area of ​​rice fields in the village was not much. 52 households with 312 people but only 5 hectares of rice fields. That means each person only has half a sao of rice fields. Therefore, escaping poverty here has never been easy. In 2025, the whole village still has 30 poor households and 6 near-poor households.

The flood came, the fields of Ruong village now have only cobblestones left.

The people of Ruong village are hard-working and have never sat still and waited for support from the budget. In 2017, nearly 3 hectares of rice fields were washed away. They hired excavators and trucks to transport soil from the mountains to fill the ground and build an irrigation system. Not counting the labor, the cost of renting vehicles, machinery and materials for each sao of rice field cost from 8 to 10 million VND.

Party cell secretary Luong Van La confided: “People have also thought of doing the same thing as in 2017, but now prices are climbing, the cost of renting trucks and excavators is higher than before. I'm afraid people can't afford it.”

Last winter, the day I was at the border, the fields along the stream were green with corn, peanuts, and vegetables. Now there are only sparse stubble on the dry high fields located at the foot of the hill.

For now, it is not possible to renovate the fields, a few households have to rebuild their livestock, and the majority of people can only rely on the forest, on bundles of firewood, bamboo shoots, beehives, or have to leave their homeland to work as laborers in the South or North. That is the story of the youth. What can the elderly and middle-aged have to do to make ends meet?...

After the flood, the Party Committee and the authorities of Bat Mot commune are pondering to find a livelihood solution for the people of Ruong village. And it is not only because of the flood that they are considering to solve the problem, when at present this village still does not have a cultural house. Here, the communal living space of the people is temporarily requisitioned from the classroom of the children in the kindergarten on a large slope. But in that room, there are no tables or chairs. When I arrived, the room was still cold and empty, except for a few pieces of plastic mats on the floor.

Also due to the shortage, for a long time, Party cell activities and village meetings were held in the evening, at the house of a family at the foot of the hill, the way to the school. As Party cell secretary Luong Van La explained: "During the day, people have had a hard time climbing the hill, so in the evening, no one wants to climb the steep hill to have a meeting in a cold, empty room."

In the afternoon, in the drizzling rain, Ruong village is far away with sad eyes filled with worries about making a living. The cadres I met at Bat Mot commune office also shared the same worries, but as the Party Secretary of the commune, Le Thanh Hai, confided: "The work that has been done, the commune has focused on doing with the highest determination and urgency. But in the long term, investing in infrastructure, ensuring sustainable socio -economic development, contributing to maintaining border security in Ruong village requires large resources, beyond the commune's capacity."

Fortunately, not only in Ruong village, after the heavy damage caused by the natural disaster caused by storm No. 5, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee declared a natural disaster emergency in Bat Mot commune, creating favorable conditions to concentrate investment resources to overcome the consequences of the storm. And up to now, the province has allocated the budget to repair a number of damaged and damaged works, including the road leading to Ruong village.

But Ruong village is still there, with endless worries about making a living in the depths of poverty...

Report by Do Duc

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/tham-tham-thon-ruong-270883.htm