Despite being located no more than five minutes away from one another, life in the hustle and bustle of Tay Ho with a cluster of 5-star hotels, and life on the abandoned bank of the Red River could not be more different. A string of families living on beaten floating-houses do not even have electricity to light a bulb at night.
We came to visit this buoy hamlet to inspect a BBGV financed project run by “1516” - a green solutions startup company. 1516 reached out to BBGV a couple of months ago with their wind turbines proposal in the hope of bringing electricity to the villagers. Fast forwards to today and we can see that three aluminum bowls and a solar panel have made a huge positive impact on people’s lives.
The road is only accessible by scooter and was an adventure in itself – we had to hold tight! Starting from 76, An Duong Alley, the scooters jumped up and down on landfill created by construction waste. Then came a thick, swampy bog - we were lucky that the typhoon had just gone by a few days before and the summer sun of Hanoi had dried the surface sufficiently for us to get through. From there, the bog led us to a vast banana field, alternating with tent-like houses. Looking back, just after 5 pm, and seeing the sun setting down behind the tall buildings less than 3 km away on Yen Phu street, we couldn’t help thinking about the contrasts in this city.
The village began to appear. If the pictures we took were filtered in black and white, it would not be an exaggeration to compare a view of 30 years ago in a remote place of Vietnam. Never could we imagine it’s the present in the centre if our capital city, Ha Noi. |
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The houses bobbed on the water. A villager told us the recent typhoon had damaged one, no expression or emotion in his voice – just a simple narrative from someone who has seen it all too often. The people here are used to losing everything overnight. During the monsoon season, the run-down buoys supporting the houses cannot carry the weight. Looking closer we could not find much stuff; old clothes, framed wedding photos, mattresses and distorted pots and pans were their only assets. The most valued item was probably their fan. All of the villagers are from the neighboring provinces, they came to Hanoi to earn a living. Some sell lottery tickets, some sell fruit, other food, and some are too old to work and heavily rely on their family members. It’s a hard life. Night time seems so much longer to them than it does to us – with no electricity, they lived in the dark.
The wind turbines designed by 1516 lit up their life – literally. A combination of wind blades, a generator, solar panels and a charging control system which cost less than USD 200 provides enough power to light a few bulbs and run a fan day in day out.
We sat down with villagers to collect their feedback on the effectiveness of the wind turbines and how much it changed their quality of life. The smiles sparkled on their faces. We were more than touched when an old man talked in his low voice: living here we counted on nothing, on no one, but these young boys came and their wind turbines made our lives better. We said nothing.
We did not bring anything to fill their empty home but we left with the happiness that we helped those people fill up their home with light. I myself noticed the school uniforms hanging in the front doors and smiled secretly thinking, it could probably be more than just a light but a brighter future for their next generations.
This Week's BBGV Chairman's Insight: Benefits and Challenges of CPTPP. Read more |
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