Western fishing village on the Kon Tum border

From hired workers, surrounded by debt, now 29 households living on Se San Lake catch and raise fish... with a stable income.

"Sometimes I miss the feeling of waiting for the flood season, in the 8th and 9th lunar months", said Ms. Ha Thi Diem Nhung, 35 years old, while sitting and swinging on a hammock in a floating house on the Se San River, about 50 meters from the shore.

She is one of the residents of An Giang, Can Tho, Hau Giang provinces... who came to make a living on the Se San River - one of the major tributaries of the Mekong River, originating in the Northern Central Highlands, 10 years ago.

Floating village of Western residents on Se San River, Kon Tum.

Nhung's hometown is An Giang. This woman followed her husband to Kon Tum to start a business in 2011, using the money the couple had saved from years of working for hire. "That year, I was working as a laborer in Saigon. I heard from some relatives in the West who came to fish in the border area that the Se San hydropower plant had just dammed up, so there was an abundance of shrimp and fish, so I left immediately," Nhung recalled.

Upon arriving, the couple bought a small boat to live and make a living. During the day, they anchored near the shore in Ia O commune (Gia Lai), and at night they went out to the middle of the river to fish. Nhung and her husband were among the residents from the West - without papers, without land, and were chased away many times by local authorities. They had no choice but to row their boat far away, or hide on the other side (Kon Tum province).

The escape lasted four years. In 2015, Nhung and her husband, along with dozens of other households, were approved by the Ia Toi Commune government, Ia H'Drai District (Kon Tum) to settle down and make a living on the Se San River. Three years later, each household was granted 400 square meters and 50 million VND to build a house.

"Now, everyone in the fishing village has a stable life thanks to fishing and raising fish in cages. There are houses built to shelter them from the rain and wind," said Nhung, adding that during the pandemic, her two children have stayed on the river to help their parents with their business and feed the fish. On school days, they stay in the newly built house (about 2 km from the fishing village).

Every day, Nhung sells groceries on the river, and occasionally, when there are tourists, she cooks and serves them. Last year, the number of customers increased every day, sometimes there were hundreds of customers, the couple could not handle it all, so they had to hire a nephew from the countryside to help transport the customers. "On days when he has free time, my husband goes to the river to catch anchovies, earning half a million each night," said Ms. Nhung.

Ms. Nhung dries catfish and packages it to sell to tourists.

Ms. Nhung dried the anchovies to make rice paper with anchovies (a specialty of the West) and fried anchovies to sell to tourists. In addition, the couple also built cages to raise eels, catfish, red tilapia, etc. to increase their income. The couple discussed expanding the scale of the restaurant and asking the government to move closer to the mountain in the middle of the river to avoid the wind, and dig a well for drinking water and raise livestock.

About 30 meters from Ms. Nhung's floating house, Mr. Nguyen Van Tung, 70 years old, from An Giang, prepared equipment for an evening fishing trip on the Se San River. His wife sat next to him and helped him move the items down to the boat. He said he was still healthy, and the fish and shrimp were waiting for him, so he had to go.

Mr. Tung's three children went fishing on the Se San River more than 10 years ago. That year, the Mekong Delta had a bad harvest. They heard that there was a new dam on the mountain, making the source of aquatic products abundant. One by one, his children went to the lake to make a living.

When they first came, they lived in small boats, rowing out to the middle of the river every night to catch shrimp and fish for a living.

Listening to his son over the phone, in the first years, every time he cast his net, he caught big fish like catfish, striped catfish, anchovies, etc. Realizing that making a living here was less difficult than in the countryside, Mr. Tung and his wife sold all their fields and gardens, and built a floating house next to their eldest son's house for more than 2 years now.

Every 5pm, the fishing village residents start running their boats to light the lamps, and around 3-4am the next morning they wake up to go fishing. Photo: Tran Hoa.

Every 5pm, the fishing village residents go by boat to light the lamps, and around 3-4am the next morning they wake up to go fishing.

In addition to fishing, casting nets, and casting traps, earning 200,000 - 300,000 VND per night, Mr. Tung also raises 3,000 snakehead fish, earning tens of millions of VND per year. "Where in the countryside can we do that? Working for hire all year round is not enough to eat," Mr. Tung recalls. 

Mr. Nguyen Phu An - Vice Chairman of Ia Toi Commune People's Committee said that in the near future, the government will renovate the wharf - the place to take tourists and residents to the fishing village area, to ensure absolute safety. "The locality is supporting the residents of the fishing village to raise fish in cages. We always create the best conditions for people to settle down and make a living," Mr. An said.