'Floating village' along the Red River devastated when water recedes, people strain to clean up mud

09/19/2024 | 14:48

TPO – In recent days, people in the “floating village” along the Red River ( Hanoi ) have returned to clean up their houses after the flood waters receded.

'Floating village' along the Red River devastated when water recedes, people strain to clean up mud photo 1

After storm No. 3 hit Hanoi, people here did not have time to repair their houses but had to "flee the flood" at night when the water level of the Red River suddenly rose. After days of evacuation, when returning, many people were heartbroken to see the scene of devastation in the very place where they had been attached to for nearly half of their lives.

'Floating village' along the Red River devastated when water recedes, people strain to clean up mud photo 2

The landscape was desolate, trees were downed on both sides of the road, many houses had their roofs blown off, walls collapsed or even the “houses” collapsed. Sheets of corrugated iron, tree branches, trash and belongings were hidden in the mud, strewn all over the path.

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Following the small, deep road leading down from Long Bien bridge, the floating village is hidden in dense bushes covered with mud.

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'Floating village' along the Red River devastated when water recedes, people strain to clean up mud photo 5

'Floating village' along the Red River devastated when water recedes, people strain to clean up mud photo 6

“Xom Phao” is located in the middle of the beach in Ngoc Thuy ward, Long Bien district. This is the “residence” of many people from Hai Phong, Nam Dinh, Thanh Hoa, Hung Yen, Bac Giang , Lang Son… The hamlet began to appear about 30 years ago when Mr. Nguyen Dang Duoc came here and started to set up boats to make a living. Gradually, many people also knew about it and came here to build floating houses. Although it became a hamlet, this place still has no electricity or water and must be completely self-sufficient.

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Each family in the neighborhood has a different story and situation, but they all have difficult circumstances and have to leave their hometown to make a living.

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'Floating village' along the Red River devastated when water recedes, people strain to clean up mud photo 9

'Floating village' along the Red River devastated when water recedes, people strain to clean up mud photo 10

'Floating village' along the Red River devastated when water recedes, people strain to clean up mud photo 11

After storm number 3 passed, the lives of people here became even more deadlocked when many families' accumulated assets were swept away by floodwaters.

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After days of evacuation to avoid the flood, people returned to clean up the rubble around the neighborhood.

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Ms. Nguyen Thi Hanh (37 years old) has been attached to the floating village for more than 20 years. She is currently living with her 5-year-old daughter in this small village. However, the recent storm and flood swept away and damaged everything the mother and daughter had, even the temporary tent they had built to have a place to go in and out was completely collapsed.

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“When we and the neighbors returned, we were shocked by the scene before our eyes. The scene of devastation was something I had never seen in more than 20 years of living here. My house had collapsed, and all my belongings were gone. The mud inside the house was a meter thick, and after 5 days of cleaning, it still wasn’t completely clean. The well was broken, so I had to ask my neighbors for water to clean up,” Ms. Hanh sadly shared.

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Ms. Hanh said that in the neighborhood, almost every house has a hand-pumped well. In recent years, some houses with a little more water have used a machine to pump water, which is less tiring.

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The floating village has no electricity supply, so most of the people here use solar power. A few days before the storm, the careful households put away all the solar panels and now they have come back to reinstall them.

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Before the storm, Ngoc Thuy Ward People's Committee also propagated and announced to mobilize people to anchor buoys securely and quickly go ashore to avoid the storm.

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Mr. Son (from Nam Dinh ) said he has been here for 20 years but has never seen the water rise as high as this time.

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'Floating village' along the Red River devastated when water recedes, people strain to clean up mud photo 20

Recalling the night the floodwaters rose, Mr. Son said: “That night the water rose so quickly that I told my family to move to a safe area first, but we didn’t have time to run away. Now that we’ve returned, we’ve discovered that all our belongings have been damaged by the water. The water tank that was tied to a tree has drifted away somewhere and we’ve just gone to get it back. The motorbike hasn’t been moved yet so it’s been stuck in the water for the past few days.”

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Repairing houses with blown-off roofs costs several million, and rebuilding collapsed houses costs 50-60 million, sometimes even hundreds of millions, but people here only worry about making ends meet so they don't know how to make ends meet.