Vietnam - Massive emigration from river to land in pictures

“A historic emigration” is what Nguyen Van Cao, chairman of the People’s Committee of Thua-Thien Hue central province, called the project designed to bring 696 households living aboard junks along rivers around the province onto land.

With a total investment of VND260 billion (US$12.5 million), the project is set to be completed soon, five years after it was begun. Local authorities are entering the final phase of the project by building three resettlement areas in Huong So and Phu Hau wards in Hue city, and Phu Mau commune in Phu Vang district.

An overall report by Phan Trong Vinh, chairman of Hue city’s People’s Committee, says: “The emigrants gradually find a stable life. They are excited to have a new life in these resettlement areas. Their awareness is raised and their children are provided with opportunities to take vocational training courses or to go to school.”

Tuoi Tre correspondents visited a resettlement area in Phu Mau commune as it entered the final phase of construction. Tuoi Tre witnessed many changes in the lives of the many people who used to ‘drift’ from river to river. The area will be home to 326 households with 2,780 members. In this area, 60 young people have been provided with vocational training courses in tailoring and civil electricity. Many of them are currently working in garment factories in the south.

However, many people still live aboard junks and boats along rivers or in squalid shacks built on river banks.

A junk that local woman Vo Thi Chien has been associated with for decades

becomes useless when it’s taken ashore.

Most emigrants sell their junks at cheap prices to build new houses on land. In this photo, a junk owned by Huynh Ngoc Sam, a local resident, is being offered for sale.

A woman shelters clothes from the rain using a junk.

Vo Thi Ly and Le Van Sinh are the only couple in the Phu Mau resettlement

area able to purchase a sewing machine.

Le Van Cuong and his wife continue to earn their living by catching fish, just like they did in the past. 400 other couples in the Phu Mau resettlement area are stuck in the same situation.

Three years since going ashore, such old junks still remain the main method of transportation for most people in the Phu Mau resettlement area.

For the family of Vo Thi Ngot (first from R), a new life on land is not less difficult than before. She caught fish in the past and now sells fish in the market.

An 8-member family who was not allocated land for resettlement had to set up

a shack along the river for shelter.

A 40 square meter structure is home to 4 couples.

Suffering the same way as 70 other households in the Phu Mau resettlement area, 

couple Tran Thi Lua and Nguyen Van Loi set up a squalid shack for shelter.

The future of these children remains unclear even after they ended their lives 

floating from river to river.

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