Living with floods in central Vietnam ancient town

Residents of Bao Vinh Town in Thua Thien-Hue Province have taken the severe disruption caused by heavy flooding in their stride.

Located on the banks of downstream Huong (Perfume) River, the old town in Huong Vinh Commune was severely flooded Saturday after it rained heavily for two days.

Bao Vinh Town, 3 km from Hue's center, is a valuable part of the cultural heritage of Hue, Vietnam's former imperial capital.

It used to be a busy commercial port from the 17th century. The town still has low and tiled-roof houses and remains vibrant with the practice of traditional crafts.

Huong and her daughter run an eatery, but their flooded shop has no customers.

“Normally we are busy serving food, but now we just sit here all day. If the water level increases, we will have to move our stuff upstairs,” Huong said.

A woman sings karaoke as two men have a drink at a shop open for business despite being flooded.

According to the National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, at 7 p.m. on Saturday, the water level on Huong River at Kim Long Ward was 3.43 m, just short of a level 3 alert.

Hoang Thi Be takes care of her grandchild after her daughter has left for work. Though the lives of Bao Vinh residents have been turned upside down, people have put up with it stoically.

Flooding has closed the local Bao Vinh Market with water more than a foot high.

Some people at the market, without any business to attend to, bring out tables and plastic chairs to chat and drink tea.

People wade through water that has risen above their knees, reaching 60 cm in some places.

Thang wades out to buy some food for dinner. His house is seriously flooded so the family has moved up to the second floor.

Tung said that whenever he was out of gas, all it took was call for a shop to deliver one to his door. Now, with the flooding, he has to take a tank home himself.

Huynh Thi Chien Thang cooks dinner for her family in a flooded room.

“Most of the furniture in the house was moved up to avoid the waters. My kitchen is so badly flooded that I had to move everything out here to cook,” she said.

Tuan’s low-lying house had no chance against the floods. All his family members have temporarily moved to their relatives’ places, leaving him behind to watch over the house.

Some people are offering ferry services for VND10,000-50,000 ($0.4-2.2) a trip.

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