When will the fishing village stop drifting?

(Baonghean) -Regardless of rain or shine, they have to work hard day and night to earn a living, but they still cannot escape the vicious cycle of poverty and hunger. Their lives are tied to their boats, drifting on the Lam River.

I arrived at the fishing village on the Lam River (in Hamlet 9, Hung Loi Commune - Hung Nguyen - Nghe An) when it was already late afternoon but the sun was still harsh. Due to the great flood from upstream, the Lam River water was muddy. In recent days, nearly 100 households in this fishing village have not been able to go to the Lam River to cast their nets to catch fish. Mr. Tran Manh Khanh (45 years old), his wife and two children have lived on boats for more than 20 years, said: "We make a living on the Lam River all day, only the elderly and children remain in the village. Work starts at 5am and by 6pm the boats gather to go "home".

A corner of the fishing village.


The "house" of the fishing village family.

At first, finding food was relatively easy because there were still plenty of fish and shrimp. But now there are no more shrimp, and fish are becoming increasingly scarce. Fishermen have to buy nets to trawl from one stretch of the river to another, each day farther and farther away, sometimes only returning home after two days. But the weather is not always favorable. Every August, September, and October, it rains a lot, boats cannot go far, people have to work hard to make a living. Khanh's family has 4 people, he and his wife are the main laborers, and their two children are school-age. Khanh confided: "On lucky days, we earn 100 to 150 thousand, many days we return home empty-handed. It's very hard, the family has 4 mouths to feed and can only rely on fishing. Fishing days are better, but the most difficult rainy season is hunger, when we go ashore we do whatever people hire us to do. Many times we go to Vinh market to sell vegetables, sell fish... but we still go hungry."

Despite the poverty, no family in the fishing village lets their children starve or drop out of school; all children go to school. In the past 6 years, the fishing village has seriously implemented family planning, so no family has had a third or more child. Mr. Khanh said that life is getting harder and harder, no one wants to have many children, and having children that they cannot raise is a sin.

Every day Mrs. Hoan goes to get clean water to use.


All other activities depend on river water.

These past few days, the flood water from upstream has been flowing in, one would think that the fishing village is idle but it is not, they are used to a hard life, not eating or sitting still, from old to young rowing boats to Lam River to collect firewood from upstream and floating downstream, even though they know it is very dangerous, each day they still earn 40 to 50 thousand.

Despite the hardship, the fishermen still have to stick around day and night, all for the sake of food and clothing. In addition to this constant worry, they also have a bigger worry that if there is an unexpected storm, they will not be able to handle it in time. Every time a storm or strong wind comes, the fishermen have to rush to row their oars and find shelter.

Most of the households in this fishing village were granted land by the State in Hung Loi commune (Hung Nguyen), but because of hunger for more than 6 months a year, no family dares to think about building a house. On days of heavy rain and strong winds, they have to set up tents near the riverbank for temporary shelter./.

Thu Huong