Tears of the owner of the lagoon after the flood
(Baonghean.vn)- Investing hundreds of millions of dong in machinery, building dams, and buying fish, but after a big flood, aquaculture pond owners in Nghi Loc district were left empty-handed.
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In mid-October, after a major flood caused by a tropical depression, the weather was sunny, but passing through hundreds of lagoons and lakes for aquaculture and seafood farming in the coastal communes of Nghi Quang, Nghi Tien, Nghi Thiet... (Nghi Loc district), we noticed an unusually desolate scene.
Only occasionally do you come across a pair of shrimp ponds with groups of people cleaning up the tarps and rebuilding the dams. Usually this is the busiest time of year for aquaculture ponds as they prepare for harvest.
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| Ms. Nguyen Thu Ha was heartbroken when she saw her family's 2.2 hectares of shrimp and crab farms, which were close to harvest time, drifted away in the floodwaters to the sea in a moment. Photo: Xuan Hoa |
The reason is that after the storm No. 10 and the recent flood, the dams were flooded and broken, and many shrimps, crabs, and fish that the owners released were swept away by the floodwaters to the ocean. I met some aquaculture owners standing there, looking blankly at the water wheels lying quietly in the middle of the immense lake.
“It’s over! It’s over, there’s nothing left. Hundreds of millions of dong poured into shrimp and crab ponds are now gone. The shrimp are ready to be harvested, we survived storm No. 10, we thought it would only rain for a couple of days, but who would have thought…”, said Nguyen Thi Thu Ha (born in 1968, residing in Tan Lap 2 hamlet, Nghi Quang commune, Nghi Loc district) wiping away tears.
Ms. Ha's family raises 2.2 hectares of shrimp and saltwater crabs. This season, her family released 460,000 shrimp and 160,000 crabs, and spent more than 250 million VND on machinery. In just a short time, the crabs and shrimps will be harvested. But in the flood in mid-October, the water level rose suddenly, the pond bank broke, and all the shrimps were swept away into the big stream. The crabs and shrimps were also almost all gone. It is estimated that her family suffered more than 400 million VND in damage from the recent flood.
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| During storm No. 10 and the flood in mid-October, 6 white-leg shrimp ponds with an area of 5.1 hectares of Mr. Tran Van Binh's family were swept away by water into the sea with estimated damage of more than 500 million VND. Photo: Xuan Hoa |
Continuing to other shrimp ponds in Nghi Quang commune, the situation is not different from Ms. Ha's family. Some families have borrowed a little capital and are trying to repair broken ponds to stock the next batch of shrimp in time to sell for Tet, hoping to recover some of the losses. But there are also households that have lost everything and now have no capital left, all their assets have been mortgaged to borrow money to buy shrimp, build dams, and now there are only empty ponds left.
Sharing the same situation as Nghi Quang commune, dozens of white-leg shrimp farming households in Nghi Tien commune, Nghi Loc district also have only empty ponds. The dams have stripped the sand banks, the ponds are dry without a drop of water, and the pond owners do not even bother to look at them because they have nothing. The owners of the remaining two or three ponds are trying to repair them from the remaining materials to restock with new breeds in the hope of recovering some of the losses.
The family of Mr. Tran Van Binh (born in 1969, residing in Hamlet 5, Nghi Tien Commune) is one of the pond owners with the largest white-leg shrimp farming area here with an area of 6 ponds of 5.1 hectares. During this farming season, when his family had just finished processing the ponds and invested in machinery, storm No. 10 hit, tearing apart the entire dam, completely damaging the machinery.
Not discouraged after the storm, he immediately returned with the remaining capital to renovate the pond and machinery. But when the batch of more than 500,000 shrimp had just been released in two ponds with an area of more than 6,000m2Less than 15 days later, the flood in mid-October hit. The entire pond and the newly released shrimp were swept away by the floodwaters and rising tides from the sea.
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| Some aquaculture households along the coastal communes of Nghi Loc district with their last remaining capital are trying to renovate their ponds after damage caused by floods, but they are still worried about continuing to lose everything as the rainy and stormy season continues to be complicated. Photo: Xuan Hoa |
In less than a month, two storms and floods have left his family almost penniless with an estimated loss of more than 500 million VND. Now, the only thing left is the house and the land title. He has mortgaged it to repair the pond, hoping that the storms will not take it away again so that he can earn some capital to restore his family's shrimp farming area.
“But while rebuilding the pond, I was worried that the rainy season had not ended yet and storm No. 11 was on its way. If it were lost again, my whole family would be on the street,” Mr. Binh sighed.
Many families raising white-leg shrimp in Nghi Tien commune are even more miserable than Mr. Binh, as their remaining capital was swept away by two storms and now they are left empty-handed with no capital to reinvest, so their ponds are left empty while the loan interest is increasing day by day.
According to a quick report during the recent flood, more than 929 hectares of aquaculture in Nghi Loc district were damaged. Of which, 75.58 hectares of brackish and saltwater aquaculture were severely damaged from 30 to 70%. In addition, more than 36 hectares of aquaculture were damaged by 70% or more, concentrated in brackish and saltwater aquaculture areas along the coastal communes such as Nghi Quang, Nghi Tien, Nghi Yen, etc.
Xuan Hoa
