Hoang Mai - new momentum after the flood

(Baonghean) -To speed up the activities of seafood processing villages after the flood, people boldly borrowed capital to invest, urgently produce and process, repair boats, and continue to go out to sea to catch seafood.

After nearly a month of flooding, we returned to Phu Loi Fish Sauce Processing Village (Quynh Di Ward, Hoang Mai Town). There is no longer a scene of desolation and devastation, people's lives have begun to stabilize again. Visiting the family of Ms. Tran Thi Dong in Phu Loi 2 block, Ms. Dong's family has 7 tons of fermented fish sauce but can only save more than 2 tons. Because it has only been soaked in water for about 10 hours, the remaining fermented fish sauce of the family can still be saved. She scooped out all the water in the jar, then roasted the rice bran and mixed it well to help the fermented fish sauce increase its flavor and prevent it from rotting. Ms. Dong said: Fortunately, in the past few days, the weather has been sunny so the family has been able to dry the fermented fish sauce soaked in the flood. Every day, my children and I have to take turns stirring it to prevent the fermented fish sauce from spoiling.

Ms. Tran Thi Dong took advantage of the sunny weather to catch fish.

The family of Mr. Tran Van Hoa in Phu Loi 2 block - one of the households that suffered heavy losses in the recent flood. Mr. Hoa's family had 10 tons of salt for more than 8 months, but now it has been washed away by floodwaters. The floodwaters also caused the foundation to collapse, tilted the sanitary works, causing his family to lose nearly 100 million VND. To restore production, Mr. Hoa borrowed money from relatives and friends to build tanks and buy jars to preserve fish. However, the biggest difficulty for his family at the moment is the lack of capital because last time, he borrowed money from the bank but before he could repay the debt, he lost everything. Mr. Hoa said: My whole family lives by producing fish sauce, so no matter how difficult it is, we have to try to restore it. But right now, we are short of capital so we cannot do it right away.

Floodwaters have caused severe damage to Phu Loi Fish Sauce Processing Village. Mr. Nguyen Duc Xan, Chairman of Phu Loi Fish Sauce Processing Village, said: Quynh Di is one of the localities that suffered heavy losses in the recent flood. Regarding seafood processing alone, floodwaters have damaged more than 80 tons of fermented fish, 20,000 liters of fish sauce concentrate, 10 tons of dried shrimp and 500 boxes of finished anchovy. In addition, hundreds of tons of salt that people bought to store at home were also washed away by the water. The estimated damage is 20 billion VND. More than 340 households in Phu Loi Fish Sauce Processing Village were affected, of which 40 households suffered severe damage.

Every year, Phu Loi Fish Sauce Village supplies the market with about 2 million liters of fish sauce. The months near Tet are favorable for the households, because the products are consumed strongly and there are many customers. After 1 year of marinating, from the 10th lunar month, the households start selling fish sauce. However, after the recent historic flood, many families have fallen into poverty. Mr. Xan added: For more than a week now, the northeast monsoon has come, boats in the ward cannot go out to sea, so the families producing fish sauce have no raw materials. Therefore, many households are building tanks and repairing warehouses so that when they have raw materials, they can produce immediately.

Compared to other communes and wards, Quynh Phuong suffered less damage, however, its fishing equipment suffered the most damage. The whole ward had 17 sunken and damaged boats due to collisions. Immediately after the water receded, the boat owners hired vehicles to salvage the boats and bring them ashore for repairs. Mr. Nguyen Van Hung, whose boat was damaged in the recent flood, said: When I heard the storm announcement, I brought the boat back to the dock and anchored it carefully. But the flood water poured in strongly and flowed rapidly, causing the boats to collide with each other, causing a lot of damage to my family's boat. We brought the boat ashore and repaired it, estimated to cost more than 30 million VND. In about 2 days, my boat will continue to go fishing.

Currently, the whole commune has 24 freezing facilities, each facility produces an average of about 100 tons. However, due to the initiative, during the flood season, when the power grid was cut off, these facilities rented generators to ensure stable operation. Mr. Nguyen Van Chau, Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Phuong Ward, added that for Quynh Phuong Ward, fishing is considered the main occupation, accounting for approximately 50% of the production value of the whole ward. Currently, the whole ward has about 3,500 workers whose income mainly depends on the sea, for direct workers, the average income is 50 - 60 million VND/year. The total fishing output of the whole ward in 10 months is estimated at about 9 thousand tons, including many types of high-value fish.

Because they are not on the list of households receiving support according to the Decision of the Provincial People's Committee, the post-flood recovery work is being proactively carried out by seafood processing households. Mr. Van Huy Thang, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Di Ward, said: The commune has compiled the damage of the people, and at the same time, propagated to the people to understand that the State has no support policy. Therefore, people need to proactively repair warehouses, utensils, and tools to restore production. Recently, the Bank for Social Policies has come to the locality to compile a list of poor and near-poor households borrowing capital from the production bank to defer debt, extend debt, and not pay interest during the above period. Quynh Di Ward has 76 households in this category. With the spirit of proactively overcoming difficulties, fishermen in Hoang Mai Town are consolidating their facilities and urgently producing to stabilize their lives.

Article and photos:Pham Bang