Lights off as 'Earth Hour' circles the globe

Lovers sit next to lit candles by Hoan Kiem lake during Earth Hour in Hanoi March 26, 2011.

Lights went off around the world Saturday as landmark buildings and ordinary homes flipped their switches while the annual "Earth Hour" circled the planet in what was dubbed the world’s largest voluntary action for the environment.

In Paris a minute’s silence was observed for Japan as the city of light went dark, with illuminations switched off at the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame cathedral, City Hall, opera houses and many bridges, fountains and public places.

Sydney’s Opera House was the first of many global landmarks to go dark as the event got under way, as hundreds of millions of people prepared to follow suit to enhance awareness of energy use and climate change.

Others in their turn included Beijing’s "Bird’s Nest" stadium that hosted the 2008 Olympics, the London Eye ferris wheel, Times Square in New York and Brazil’s Christ the Redeemer statue.

Many switched off their floodlighting, advertising signs and other illuminations for an hour from 8:30 p.m. local time.

"The amount of power that’s saved during that time is not really what it’s about," Earth Hour co-founder and executive director Andy Ridley told AFP in Sydney, where the movement began in 2007.

"What it is meant to be about is showing what can happen when people come together."

Ridley said a record 134 countries or territories were on board for this year’s event.

Organizers also asked people to commit to an action, large or small, that they will carry through the year to help the planet.

Ridley said Earth Hour, organized by global environment group WWF, this year would also focus on connecting people online so they could inspire each other to make commitments to help protect the environment.

In Australia, organizers said an estimated 10 million people, nearly half the population, took part, with Sydney Harbour Bridge another of the landmarks to go dark.

Hong Kong’s neon waterfront dimmed, while in Singapore all decorative lights were switched off and non-critical operational lights lowered at Changi Airport for an hour.

In Japan, which is reeling from a huge earthquake and tsunami that struck this month, several thousand people and a hotel-turned-evacuation center in the northeast marked Earth Hour.

In Russia some 30 cities joined in, from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the most easterly city on the Kamchatka peninsula, through Moscow to Murmansk in the far north.

Moscow turned off floodlighting on more than 70 buildings and bridges, including the 540-meter (1,780-foot) television tower and the 32-storey Moscow State University building.

In Athens monuments being darkened included the Acropolis, the parliament building, the presidential palace and the temple of Poseidon near the city.

In Italy, more than 200 towns and cities took part. The Ponte Vecchio in Florence, the Tower of Pisa and the Colosseum in Rome all turned off their lights for an hour.

Lights went out in 52 Romanian cities, where concerts and candle-light marches were organized. In Bucharest, dozens of people cycled through the city center before gathering in George Enescu square.

In the United States, parts of Boston’s and Chicago’s skyline turned dark as many buildings joined the event.

The participating landmarks in Chicago included the Merchandise Mart, Wrigley Building, NBC tower, Chicago Theater and Navy Pier among others.

At Los Angeles International Airport, tall gateway pylons that glowed solid green just before the event went dark. The pylons now use special light fixtures that consume 75 percent less electricity than the previous lamps.

The historic Long Beach hotel Queen Mary turned off its exterior lights and guests had been asked to turn off their nonessential stateroom lights.

Also dark was the famous Ferris wheel on Santa Monica’s pier.

In Argentina, Buenos Aires switched off the spotlight on its landmark Obelisk.

In South Africa the Grammy award winning group Soweto Gospel choir along with other local musicians treated hundreds of people to a free candlelight concert in the township of Soweto. Music fans waved lit candles while others used their cell phones to light up the stage.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon backed Earth Hour, urging people to celebrate the shared quest to "protect the planet and ensure human well-being."

"Let us use 60 minutes of darkness to help the world see the light," he said.

Ridley said he never expected the Earth Hour movement to become so large.

"We didn’t imagine right at the beginning… it would be on the scale that it is now. And the fact that it is so cross cultural, beyond borders and race and religion," he said.

Source: AFP 

Stretching an hour into a year

Hanoi youth gathered at last year’s Earth Hour celebration. Millions of people are expected to switch off lights for an hour from 8:30 p.m. on March 26 to raise awareness about energy conservation during Earth Hour 2011.

La Thuy Diem Hang is sure that this year’s Earth Hour will witness record participation in Vietnam.

This week, volunteers and organizers have been busily arranging activities and preparing communities all over the country for the big event.

This Saturday, environmentally-conscious people and businesses all over the world will shut off their  electric lights from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

The main event in Vietnam is set to take place in the central province of Thua Thien-Hue.

“In 2010, the campaign was held in Ho Chi Minh City mainly by WWF Vietnam,” said the 23-year-old graduate from the HCMC University of Science. “This year, many local environmental clubs and organizations have gotten involved.”

Hang said that many young first-time participants in last year’s event in HCMC have joined this year’s campaign to mobilize others. “We have distributed leaflets and encouraged locals from seven neighborhoods in HCMC to join the campaign,” she told Thanh Nien Weekly. “Also, 60 cafés in the city have committed to turning off their lights during the event.”

As Vietnam faces down its growing energy needs, energy efficiency policies and programs are being looked to as the cheapest and most immediate solution to the nation’s power shortcomings.

Making strides

Manufacturing flourished as the nation’s economy soared, driving up the country’s power demands – and not always in the most efficient way.

In the past ten years, international development agencies have implemented a host of small scale programs to help Vietnam make its grid more efficient.

In 2003, for example, researchers discovered that Vietnam consumed 39,000 British Thermal Units (BTUs) for every dollar of its gross domestic product (GDP). That same year, Japan used about 5,000 BTUs per dollar of GDP.

From 2004-2009 Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) implemented a program to promote the installation of energy-saving compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) in houses and buildings across Vietnam. 

“The program had a major impact, transforming the lighting market in Vietnam, and reducing peak demand by 300 MW,” said Peter du Pont, who worked as a consultant to EVN and the World Bank during the implementation of the program. “It also reduced emissions of carbon dioxide, by more than three million tons." 

At the moment, the Asian Development Bank is looking to fund the streamlining of seven heavy manufacturing sites, according to Felix Gooneratne, Asia Director, International Institute for Energy Conservation (IIEC).

“Investment grade audits conducted at seven sites (five cement and two steel) have identified significant potential for generating electricity from process waste heat that would supplement on-site electricity demand,” said Gooneratne. “Investment plans are currently being finalized.”

At the same time, the United Nations Development Program has targeted small and medium-sized manufacturers for efficiency projects.

Future energy needs remain a major issue in the country.

Last month, the government raised the costs of electricity roughly fifteen percent. Officials at the Ministry of Industry and Trade said they hoped that higher power prices would make the construction of large power projects more attractive to foreign investors.

In the meantime, Vietnam is looking to develop its own grassroots campaign to curb energy usage.

Beyond the hour

Earth Hour was initiated by the WWF – a non-governmental environmental advocate – to increase climate change awareness and induce mitigating responses.

The first event was held in Sydney in 2007 and has quickly spread around the globe.

Last year, hundreds of millions of people across the world, in 4,616 cities and 128 countries and territories, turned off their lights during the last weekend in March.

Tran Minh Hien, Vietnam Country Director of the WWF Greater Mekong Program, said that they plan to launch an extensive campaign that will last the whole year.

“The main event night is just a beginning,” she said. “Several activities have been launched for individuals, companies and organizations nationwide.”

WWF Vietnam has held talks with students from 16 universities and schools about climate change and Earth Hour.

Hien said that the first success of the campaign is that it has attracted more support from governmental agencies, organization and individuals.

In 2010, 20 cities and provinces as well as more than 300 companies and organizations participated in the event.

“This year, up to 30 cities and provinces and more than 4,800 companies and organizations have committed to participating,” Hien said.

Facing down energy demands

This January, the Law on Economical and Effective Use of Energy took effect. The law resolution sought to establish limits on the use of energy in homes and businesses-though actual regulations have yet to be established.

In the meantime, Vietnam is facing some very immediate problems in its energy needs.

According to the HCMC Energy Conservation Center (ECC) the city will face a shortfall of two million kWh of electricity every day during the remainder of the dry season—which ends in May.

Center Director Huynh Kim Tuoc said that the energy shortfall would not be a problem if local consumers became more conscious about their energy usage.

“If 1.8 million households in HCMC turned off their air conditioners for an extra 30 minutes, the city would save 900,000 kWh of electricity a day,” he told Tuoi Tre newspaper in an interview last week. “More efficient use of electricity in factories and offices would also solve the energy shortage.”

But local campaigners and public awareness campaigns are already taking hold.

Last March, the ECC and the HCMC Women’s Association launched a campaign to make 100,000 households energy efficient. As a result, many households have reduced their electricity bills between 10-50 percent during the previous year.

”We built a network of some 1,200 propagandists in all the city’s 24 districts,” Tuoc said. “Each was assigned to be in charge of around 100 families to offer energy saving consultations and encourage them to use electricity efficiently.”

Tuoc added that the ultimate goal is to change the community’s awareness in purchasing and using electricity.

“The result was great,” he said. “The participants later encouraged others to participate in the program.”

Reported by Giang An  

Hanoi opens HIV/AIDS fund

Hanoi Health Department on Tuesday opened the city HIV/AIDS Patients Fund to offer good medical treatment and help patients integrate into the community.

Nguyen Van Dung, deputy director of the Hanoi Health Department and director of the fund, said the patients’ fund will give advises to the department over supporting HIV/AIDS patients in the city.

“The fund will organize campaigns to encourage individuals and organizations around and outside the country to prevent and fight the disease in Hanoi, as well as take care of the infected,” Dung said.

Hanoi is among the five cities and provinces with the highest number of HIV patients in the country, with 275 per 100,000 people infected and 1,549 new infections last year, according to the department.

Since the first case was discovered in 1993, the city has diagnosed 22,078 HIV patients, as of the end of last year, most of them being sex workers and drug users. 8,409 of these have developed AIDS, with 3,519 fatal cases, the department said.

Source: VNA 

Oil from unknown origin curdles along central coast

Da Nang workers collect oil spill from the city coast

Oil curdling on the water appeared along the Da Nang coastline on Sunday, though its origin is still in dispute, Dan Tri reported Monday.

The oil particles are as big as the head of a chopstick, spreading over one kilometer from My Khe to T.18 beaches, both major tourist spots in the central region city, said Phan Minh Hai, deputy manager of Da Nang beaches.

Hai said he has asked the river and sea environment company at Da Nang Department of Natural Resources and Environment to clean up the oil. “It might take several days.”

Nguyen Thi Ngot, a worker of the company, said the oil particles was first spotted Saturday afternoon.

The workers said they couldn’t estimate the number of particles as they cleaned the oil together with the garbage.

But the oil has spread to a larger area, the workers said.

There were suggestions that the oil came from tar kilns in the south of Hai Van Pass, but Hai said the oil from there should have arrived first at Xuan Thieu and Thanh Khe beaches.

Some people are also concerned that the oil came from the Hoang Son South that sank off near Quang Ngai Province December 12.

Rescuers then managed to transfer 40 tons of diesel oil from the boat but there was still around 180 tons of oil that couldn’t be transferred due to strong waves.

Hai has not made any conclusion but said the oil spill has not come from any boats anchored along the city coastline.

He said the oil must have been spilled somewhere offshore many days ago and was now curdling due to a dip in temperatures.

Truong Vinh Duc, a worker of the city environment company, said the oil resulted from fishermen washing their boats offshore.

If the condition got worse, Hai said he would ask concerned agencies from the central government to help.

Source: Thanh Nien 

Give the woman her due

 From left: Nguyen Thi Hong, vice chairwoman of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee (2nd), Nguyen Thi Quyet Tam, head of the Propaganda and Education Department at the city Party unit (3rd), Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, vice secretary of the city Party unit (5th). Vietnam aims to raise the number of female government leaders by 2020.

Vietnam hopes to make significant headway toward achieving gender equality over the next decade with a new national plan to increase women’s representation in the government, academia and top echelons of business establishments.

A decision signed by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung last week to approve the national strategic plan on gender equality cites it as an “important component” of the country’s socio-economic development and one of the “basic elements” in raising the quality of life.

The plan aims to ensure equal opportunity, participation and benefits in all areas including politics, economy, culture and society.

It targets that by 2020, women account for more than 35 percent of members in the National Assembly and local legislative agencies; and that 95 percent of ministries and government agencies should have women in senior positions.

The plan also seeks to provide increased access to the labor market for poor women from rural areas and ethnic minority groups, and to have at least 40 percent of new jobs every year go to women.

The number of women in leading positions at business establishments is expected to exceed 35 percent, and at least 50 percent of rural women below 45 years old would receive vocational training in 2020.

By then, all women from poor rural areas and ethnic groups will be able to access loans at preferential interest rates.

No stereotyping

The plan aims to reduce the number of cultural and information products that contain gender stereotypes by 80 percent and to try and eliminate all gender stereotypes from school books by 2020.

All the radio and television stations will be required to broadcast programs that raise public awareness of gender equality.

The plan also mentions the goal of keeping the gender ratio at birth between boys and girls at no more than 115/100 in 2020.

It seeks to reduce the time women have to spend doing housework, provide more legal services as well as physical protection for victims of domestic violence.

The government will improve gender-related policies and laws including the Gender Equality Law, fixing aspects of current regulations that have disadvantaged women, and grant more scholarships exclusively for girls and women.

Gender equality issues will be included in the curricula at primary, secondary and high school levels, as well as in management courses for government personnel, the plan says.

It also aims to increase awareness among men about the importance of safe sex and equip them with information about of healthy pregnancies and related issues. Men will also be encouraged to participate in gender equality activities including joining “equal family clubs.”

RAMPANT VIOLENCE

According to a study jointly released in late November by the United Nations and the Vietnamese government, one in three Vietnamese women reported suffering physical or sexual violence from their husbands at some point in their lives.

Many women considered the violence “normal” and something they should tolerate to maintain family harmony. A sense of shame also motivated them to stay silent about abuse.

The study covered 4,838 women between 18 and 60 years old.

But headway is being made because of concerted efforts by the government, civil society, the United Nations and other agencies to end gender-based violence.

The UN report tells the story of a 29-year-old woman called Hoa in the northern province of Phu Tho whose alcoholic husband beat her regulary. Frightened, she had her parents talk to him.

After a brief lull, the violence began again, and got worse. Once he locked her up in the house for ten days, and when she was released, she ran away.

She sought help from the Women’s Union, who directed her to the district hospital where she received counseling under a pilot project funded by the UN and the Swiss Development Cooperation.

Hoa was later referred to a safe place, where she lived for six months with her daughter, received training in life skills, women’s health and ways to protect herself from violence.

“I have also learned about the Law on Domestic Violence and realized that there are mechanisms to protect victims of violence.” Hoa said she was not frightened anymore and that she would work to help other women in similar situations.

As part of the UN project, domestic violence prevention standing committees, consisting of staff from local People’s Committees, relevant mass organizations, health centers, the police and other agencies, meet regularly and monitor cases in the community to support survivors and make sure they can enjoy a life free of violence.

They are keeping a watch on Hoa who has since returned to her hometown where she plans to reopen the cosmetics shop she used to run when she was married – a shop that her husband destroyed after she divorced him.

Source: Thanh Nien  

Getting the best people and the best out of them

Parents waiting for their children taking the 2010 university entry exam. Da Nang City issued a decision disqualifying students who complete their education while working other jobs from government jobs, beginning next year.

 “All that glitters is not gold.”

The saying is quite old, but its truth shines just as brightly today.

And it is a good one to keep in mind when authorities are struggling with guaranteeing quality in all aspects of people’s lives, particularly in the education system, which has taken a lot of flak, some of it justified recently.

But a controversial move last week by the Da Nang City administration does the education sector a huge disservice it does not deserve.

The city issued a decision disqualifying students who complete their education while working other jobs, that is, those who are working and studying at the same time, from government jobs, beginning next year.

Let us see how this system works in Vietnam. There are people looking to start work as soon as they graduate from high schools and vocational schools for various financial and personal reasons. While working, they attend four-year university programs.

Now, under the decision, students who graduate from these programs cannot work for the Da Nang government, although, on paper, their degrees have the same value as those who attend full-time study programs.

Some say this decision is unfair and discriminates against part-time students. Others say it is against the spirit of the country’s desire to build a “learning society”, where everyone is encouraged to study whenever and wherever they can.

The education sector as a whole, both regular university education and the part-time programs have been heavily criticized by the public.

However, there is another aspect that is problematic about this decision. It deprives the city of people who are really capable, but have had to opt for this mode of academic learning for one reason or the other, and it deprives such people of the opportunity to serve the city.

With all the problems we are having with human resources development in Vietnam, recruiting people with skills is key, and isn’t this what the decision actually aims at? To improve the quality of the city’s workforce?

Why take a step that makes this more difficult, and less flexible?

People with skills and talents should be taken from all available sources, and we do not have to exclude those who take the trouble to complete part-time study programs while working.

As Pham Tat Dong, vice chairman of Vietnam’s Study Encouragement Association, told the Tuoi Tre newspaper recently, good and average students can be found in all types of institutions.

Some may argue that degrees are the first step to shortlist applicants, and keep the process transparent.

But, it’s not the only way.

Another solution is to design scientific, fair and clear recruitment tests such as those which are already in place for government agencies to employ civil servants.

Phan Manh Tien, deputy chief of the Ministry of Education’s Higher Education Department, told Lao Dong: “In my opinion, what’s important to improve the quality of civil servants’ recruitment is the method of recruitment, not the shortlisting of applications [based on degrees].

“If we want to employ good civil servants, we need to improve the quality of input tests.”

By Thanh Nien 

Loan sharks scam HCMC students

Students unable to repay debts fear for their limbs

Binh left his home in a nearby province and came to Ho Chi Minh City with dreams of a degree.

Struggling with the high costs of living in the city, he failed to pay his university fees in October and ended up borrowing VND5 million (US$256) from a friend.

When the friend asked him to return the money, Binh reluctantly went to one of the many loan sharks that lend money to cash-strapped students in the city.

“I had no choice. Banks and legal loan services won’t give me loans because I have no assets [to mortgage],” he said.

At a money lender’s in an alley off Tran Hung Dao Street in District 1, just steps away from the dormitories of the HCMC University of Economics and the HCMC University of Natural Sciences, Binh was “approved” for a loan at an interest rate of 21 percent per month.

To legalize the loan, Binh was made to sign a document saying he received the money as a deposit for a laptop he would deliver later.

Before he left, the lender warned the student with dire consequences if he failed to pay his debts. “They threatened to contact my family and cut off my limbs,” he said. Thankfully, he was able to pay off his debts within ten days.

But another student, Tu, was not that lucky. He was threatened and seriously bullied all November after failing to pay interest on a loan of VND11 million ($564). Fearing for his limbs and life, Tu borrowed money from his sister to pay off the interest. But he is still mired in debt.

According to Tu, hundreds of students have borrowed money from the same lender, identified only as C.

The 47 universities in HCMC attract thousands of students every year from around the country, especially the southern provinces. Loan sharks lurk around the universities and thrive on ripping off broke students.

Students get mired in extortionate interest rates, often ending up struggling to pay off just the interest, without any hope of getting out of debt.

Abundant bloodsuckers

Following a complaint from a victim student, Thanh Nien conducted an investigation and found hundreds of students who have seen their hardships turn into horrors.

Disguised as a relative repaying a student’s debt, a Thanh Nien reporter found that the loan shark popularly known as C. belongs to a ring with at least three unlicensed lenders around universities in HCMC.

He was told that he could pay the interest at any of the other “branches” in the city – at Street No. 2 near University of Technology in District 10, at D5 Street near a branch of Foreign Trade University in Binh Thanh District, and in the Thu Duc university area in Thu Duc District.

The service on D5 Street appears to be a pawn shop with a board advertising “low-interest loans with easy procedures.” A man called H. directed the “customer” to a nearby service on D2 Street to discuss the loan. However, he refused to lend money when the reporter presented an invalid student card.

Another loan shark in H.’s racket said many other loan sharks in Thu Duc university area charged even higher interest rates, of VND40,000 per day on a VND1 million loan, which works out to be 120 percent per month.

H. also claimed that the ring has tight connections with government and police officials who protect the illegal services.

According to state regulations, interest rates should be no more than 150 percent of the benchmark interest rate set by the State Bank of Vietnam. At the moment, the benchmark rate is 9 percent per annum, and the maximum interest rates charged by money lenders should not exceed 13.5 percent. Violating lenders can be punished by jail terms of up to three years and fines up to ten times the involved interest amount.

INVESTIGATION UNDERWAY

Following Thanh Nien’s report published Monday (December 6), the police in District 1 summoned 28-year-old Nguyen Manh Cuong, previously identified as C., for interrogation. Cuong, who operates the money-lending service on Tran Hung Dao Street confessed he had lent money to students at a monthly interest of 21 percent. He also admitted that he had forced borrowers to sign false documents saying they received the money as a deposit for laptops. However, he failed to say how many students had borrowed money from him. A subsequent police raid of his facility found records of 29 students who had borrowed a total of VND185 million. The police also found several leaflets introducing his services. Police said Cuong has so far not revealed any connections with other loansharks’ services in Binh Thanh District or elsewhere in the city. A District 1 police officer said they are investigating the case and are determined to crack down on the loan sharks. Meanwhile, several students who had borrowed money from Cuong told Thanh Nien that they received anonymous phone calls instructing them to pay their debt at a facility in Binh Thanh District. The Binh Thanh District police told Thanh Nien they would verify the information about the loan sharks operating in their jurisdiction.

Reported by Thanh Nien staff 

18th century coins found in northern Vietnam

Twenty four kilograms of coins dating back to the 18th century were found at a private residence in Hai Phong City.

The coins were handed over to the city museum this week, said Do Xuan Trung, the vice-director of the museum.

Nguyen Van Bay was reconstructing a small wooden pier over a pond outside his house in Quoc Tuan Commune, An Lao District, when he found the ancient coins.

Trung said that after cleaning and sorting, they found some of the coins had been minted during the reign of China’s Qianlong Emperor while others had been produced by uprising peasants under Vietnam’s Le Dynasty in the 18th century.

The coins were packed in a ruddy wave-patterned jar and hidden in the pond. The zinc-bronze doubloons have taken on a dark, rusty color over the years.

Bay’s family was rewarded by the museum for their discovery and their willingness to hand it over the museum, according to the vice director.

Trung said the city museum has a vast collection of ancient coins but no archeologist to date and uncover the history behind them. The ancient treasures are gathering dust in the museum for lack of expert care. The newly discovered coins face a similar fate.

Source: Lao Dong 

Hanoi claims it came in under-budget on anniversary party

Hanoi spent VND265.928 billion (US$13.64 million) on its millennial anniversary, Hoang Manh Hien, vice chairman of Hanoi’s People’s Committee, said at a meeting on Wednesday, December 8.

The sum is far below some of the astronomical projections that have surfaced in recent weeks. If the figure is indeed accurate then the city managed to pull the event off well under-budget.

The money was spent on PR, cultural activities, and gifts among other things, according to Hien.

The city appears to have cut impractical and unreasonable addendums from the event budget, he told a meeting of the Hanoi People’s Council, the municipal legislature.

According to Hien, the Council had approved VND350 billion ($17.95 million) for the event.

City authorities recently called for a public report on expenditures for the week-long October festival after local media outlets reported rumors that the celebration cost VND4-5 trillion (US$205-257 million).

Last month, one lawmaker filed a note to the Finance Ministry asking officials there to address rumors that the festival organizers had blown VND94trillion ($4.82 billion), or on tenth of the country’s gross domestic product.

Municipal authorities roundly denied the allegations.

Still, even after the first official expenditure report, suspicion lingers among some city deputies.

Deputy Vu Duc Tan said the report is incomplete, considering that funding for the event came from more places than just the municipal budget.

Tan added that the report omitted several costly development projects that were supposed to conclude in time for the anniversary – like the 30 kilometer Thang Long Boulevard and Hoa Binh Park.

In the meantime, Nguyen Van Nam, Chief of the People’s Council’s Budget Committee, said the deputies will have to wait until all the expenditures have been settled on the balance sheet.

During the same meeting, several development-weary deputies criticized a proposal calling for high-rise construction along the city’s 40-kilometer riverfront.

Deputy Nguyen Viet Hung said the project, which was estimated to cost $7 billion, would pave  the city center with a high density of buildings.

Hanoi, he fears, could make the same mistake Seoul did when they developed the banks of the Han River. Hung said the plan would prove “a misery” that would sap the city of its “ancient and romantic” beauty.

Councilman and architect Tran Trong Hanh agreed.

Hanh argued that the project has already been criticized by many deputies and would transform the serene waterfront into a cold rampart. Hanh was equally concerned by a proposed adjustment to several sections of the river’s dyke which is almost 1,000 years old.

Reported by Viet Chien – Minh Nam 

City cruise

Ho Chi Minh City has spent lots of money upgrading its drainage system. People have put up with green barriers erected for the sake of street upgrades with the hope that the city won’t suffer from flooding anymore.

However, has the upgraded drainage system proved itself yet? Streets that have never seen floods now suffer the same fate as others.

With the way things are going, perhaps rich people will buy yachts to go around the streets in the rainy season in a couple of years!

Khanh0798@

The more things change…

I raise just one question to the city authorities. It’s also an old question that has been asked for a long time. “Why is it that the more we fight against flooding, the more heavily flooded our city is?” Is it because Vietnam doesn’t have the capacity to do it or is it because of other reasons? Every year we fight floods, we spend money, and we undertake “strong” measures. But the flooding just gets worse every year. I can’t understand it. People have spent lots of money, but the only answer given by contractors of anti-flooding infrastructure is that “it is currently under construction…”

Huynh Ngoc Khanh (District 7, HCMC)

In circles

I’m from the southern province of An Giang. My hometown is usually flooded, but Long Xuyen Town is almost never flooded. When I came to HCMC, I saw some areas get submerged just 15 minutes after heavy rains started. To stop the flooding, the government raised the height of the streets, and then people increase the height of the ground floor of their houses.

As this area gets higher, water flows to other lower areas, prompting the latter to raise their height as well. Everything then just goes around in circles, and citizens are still victims to floods. In my opinion, the city’s leaders should consider different solutions, including those put forward by locals and experts, to ensure that anti-flooding efforts really work.

Tran Van Loi
(Long Xuyen Town, the southern province of An Giang)

Stop waiting

I live in Ward 26 of Binh Thanh District, which was heavily flooded between November 4 and 11. Water from the river flowed into our alley and then our houses, bringing rubbish with it. Everybody was exhausted from fighting against the flooding. But not a single official came to see how we were doing. Luckily, an old man in the neighborhood came up with a solution to tackle the flood with a stainless steel panel, a pumping machine and a couple of rubber washers. Thanks to his initiative, the neighborhood isn’t flooded anymore. This showed me that people need to join hands to save themselves first, even as we wait for officials to come and review the situation and undertake anti-flooding measures.

Khuong Thanh
Xo Viet Nghe Tinh Street, Ward 26, Binh Thanh District, HCMC

A flooded street in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 5