OBA water supplies in rural areas discussed

A seminar on investment and the management of OBA projects which focus on clean water and hygiene in rural areas in the Mekong Delta region was held in Tien Giang province on November 29.

At the seminar, the participants, including staff from water supply systems, officials from various ministries and agencies, donors and the representatives of non-government organisations, shared their experiences in putting into action water supply projects using a newly-applied model known as OBA (outcomes-based technical assistance) which was launched by the East Meets West (EMW) Foundation.

The participants also had the chance to explore Tieng Giang province’s regulations and policies on private investment and management in rural areas and held a discussion on OBA models in several provinces such as Dong Thap, Long An, Tien Giang and An Giang.

Environmental programmes were also put on the table for discussion at the meeting, thus helping improve the effectiveness of water supply projects.

The EMW, a US non-government organisation, has helped private businesses in the central region to carry out over 150 small-scale works to supply fresh water to a number of rural areas, that benefit nearly 230,000 residents.

Since 2007, the organisation has applied a new model outcomes-based assistance and used it throughout the Mekong Delta region, particularly Tien Giang province. The organisation has also supported 24 private businesses to provide clean water for 8,700 households./.

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Delta job seekers enslaved in southern hub

Xe om drivers around Ho Chi Minh City major bus stations have abducted youth from the Mekong Delta and sold them to people who forced them to work without wages, according to a Tuoi Tre investigation undertaken following readers' tipoffs.

The drivers operate at the Mien Tay Bus Station, where vehicles take people to and from Mekong Delta destinations, and people frequently arrive looking for jobs in the city.

N.C.K., a recent 18-year-old victim, said his family in An Giang Province was in financial trouble, so he he took a bus to HCMC on October 30 to look for his brother and ask him for help finding a job.

At the bus station, a group of xe om drivers snatched his bag with all his personal papers, money and a note of his contacts, said K. who managed to escape later.

The youth said he had begged the drivers to take him to a Vai village in the city to look for his brother.

One of the drivers “drove me for around 20 minutes and took me to a house where everyone wore tattoos. I was very scared.

“Then a woman gave him some money. Then I was brought by another person to a big house in the middle of a field. The house owner gave the driver VND300,000 ($15.40) and pulled me inside, locking the doors,” the boy said.

He said there were five other boys, similarly kidnapped in the house, working hard sorting metal scrap.

The owner was supervising the work, threatening to starve them to death whenever they paused in the work.

“One ran away yesterday and I’m looking for him. I will kill him when I get him,” K. recalled the man as saying.

But the boy still tried to escape the next night and was helped to do so by a local resident.

In September, N.V.T., 26, also from An Giang, was abducted and sold to a rice factory in District 6.

T. said: “They took my ID card and forced me to carry rice for no money day and night until I was exhausted. When I asked for the the card back to go home, they threatened to assault me.”

He managed to contact a friend on the phone who paid the factory owners money to free him.

Also in September, three young men from Kien Giang Province ended up at a leather shoe factory near Mien Tay Bus Station while in May, two others from Soc Trang Province were forced to be garbage pickers for a man in Binh Duong province, neighboring HCMC.

For each ID card of the victims they gave the boss, the xe om drivers received VND500,000 ($26).

The victims worked from dawn until late at night with stinky garbage, ate poorly and didn’t get paid, they said. They escaped after several weeks.

Many rings are operating at the station, abducting people who look naïve and confused, and taking them to metal scrap dealers, slaughterhouses or other establishments.

Some of the victims are lured with promises of well-paid jobs at shops or restaurants.

If the victims don’t agree to work, they are beaten and forced to even harder work.

The Tuoi Tre investigation found out a similar situation at the Mien Dong Bus Station, where passengers travel between the city and the central and northern regions.

It found that the ring leaders, who finally employ the victims, also have to pay commission to some officials of the bus stations.

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Delta job seekers enslaved in southern hub

Xe om drivers around Ho Chi Minh City major bus stations have abducted youth from the Mekong Delta and sold them to people who forced them to work without wages, according to a Tuoi Tre investigation undertaken following readers' tipoffs.

The drivers operate at the Mien Tay Bus Station, where vehicles take people to and from Mekong Delta destinations, and people frequently arrive looking for jobs in the city.

N.C.K., a recent 18-year-old victim, said his family in An Giang Province was in financial trouble, so he he took a bus to HCMC on October 30 to look for his brother and ask him for help finding a job.

At the bus station, a group of xe om drivers snatched his bag with all his personal papers, money and a note of his contacts, said K. who managed to escape later.

The youth said he had begged the drivers to take him to a Vai village in the city to look for his brother.

One of the drivers “drove me for around 20 minutes and took me to a house where everyone wore tattoos. I was very scared.

“Then a woman gave him some money. Then I was brought by another person to a big house in the middle of a field. The house owner gave the driver VND300,000 ($15.40) and pulled me inside, locking the doors,” the boy said.

He said there were five other boys, similarly kidnapped in the house, working hard sorting metal scrap.

The owner was supervising the work, threatening to starve them to death whenever they paused in the work.

“One ran away yesterday and I’m looking for him. I will kill him when I get him,” K. recalled the man as saying.

But the boy still tried to escape the next night and was helped to do so by a local resident.

In September, N.V.T., 26, also from An Giang, was abducted and sold to a rice factory in District 6.

T. said: “They took my ID card and forced me to carry rice for no money day and night until I was exhausted. When I asked for the the card back to go home, they threatened to assault me.”

He managed to contact a friend on the phone who paid the factory owners money to free him.

Also in September, three young men from Kien Giang Province ended up at a leather shoe factory near Mien Tay Bus Station while in May, two others from Soc Trang Province were forced to be garbage pickers for a man in Binh Duong province, neighboring HCMC.

For each ID card of the victims they gave the boss, the xe om drivers received VND500,000 ($26).

The victims worked from dawn until late at night with stinky garbage, ate poorly and didn’t get paid, they said. They escaped after several weeks.

Many rings are operating at the station, abducting people who look naïve and confused, and taking them to metal scrap dealers, slaughterhouses or other establishments.

Some of the victims are lured with promises of well-paid jobs at shops or restaurants.

If the victims don’t agree to work, they are beaten and forced to even harder work.

The Tuoi Tre investigation found out a similar situation at the Mien Dong Bus Station, where passengers travel between the city and the central and northern regions.

It found that the ring leaders, who finally employ the victims, also have to pay commission to some officials of the bus stations.

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Invasive slider found in Kien Giang Province

One member of the red-eared slider turtle species has been spotted in Kien Giang Province, after Mekong Delta governments have made several efforts to stop the foreign invasive reptile from spreading.

A farmer in U Minh Thuong (Upper U Minh) forest area found the turtle, weighing around one kilogram, caught in his net. Experts have identified it as the red-eared slider, local media said Sunday.

Local authorities said there must be many of them in other places in the province that have not been discovered, coming in from nearby provinces or released by local residents who bought them and found them harmful.

The red-eared slider turtle (Trachemys scripta elegans) is native to North America and was included in the list of the world’s 100 worst invasive species by the Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG) - a global network of scientific and policy experts on invasive species. It is said that the species is likely to invade the habitat of local turtles and that they can spread typhoid.

Can Tho Seafood Import and Export Company (Caseamex) in April imported nearly 26,400 sliders from the US company Oakland Ninja and sent them to Vinh Long to be bred for meat.

The authorities warned the company about the harm they could cause, but it failed to return or destroy the creatures. 

The Kien Giang government has asked its Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to watch out for more sliders and take strict measures to control them from spreading.

The department plans to send officials to check retailers of ornamental sea creatures in the area and inform local residents of the danger of red-eared sliders so they would hand over any  turtles they might have.

Vietnamese conservation experts have complained that the country lacks legal backing and scientific wherewithal to deal with invasive species from overseas.

Several invasives have already become established in Vietnam, making the local ecosystem less hospitable to native species. 

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Workplace accidents on the rise in rural areas

Professor Doctor Le Van Trinh, head of the National Institute of Labour Protection, said there was still not an office in charge of controlling labour accidents and occupational diseases in rural areas.

"Administrative offices are still ignoring these areas," Trinh said.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs was the only office responsible for monitoring workplace accidents, he said.

Official figures on the number of occupational accidents were not available because fewer than 10 percent of enterprises reported their labour accidents annually, Trinh added.

The National Institute of Labour Protection, therefore, has no other alternative but to rely on hospitals for information about accidents and occupational diseases in rural areas.

By conducting a survey of about 1,000 patients at hospitals throughout the country, the institute found that nearly 66 percent of labourers working in the agriculture sector and craft villages had frequent contact with dust. About 60 percent had regular contact with harmful chemicals.

Job site accidents which resulted in abrasions to hands or feet accounted for nearly 39 percent of all agriculture production injuries. The figure was about 44 percent for craft village accidents.

Labourers suffering from respiratory, skin and gynaecological diseases made up 42 percent, 39 percent and 35 percent, respectively, at agriculture production sites; these figures were 54 percent, 46 percent and 38 percent in craft villages.

A report released by the International Labour Organisation said awareness and knowledge about labour safety and hygiene as well as environment protection among labourers in rural areas was still limited.

The organisation said this lack of awareness was one of the main reasons for the rising number of labour accidents and occupational diseases in these areas.

Farmer Nguyen Thi Quit of Thuan Hoa Commune in Hau Giang Province 's Long My District finally went to the Hau Giang General Hospital to receive treatment for her right eye when she could no longer stand the pain.

A leaf brushed across Quit's eye when she was harvesting sugar cane. It took a few days for the pain to surpass her threshold, but by that point the doctors told her it was too late. Her eye was permanently damaged.

In another case, farmer Tran Thanh Quang of Dong Thap Province 's Lai Vung District lost an eye because he used water from a rice field to wash out his eye. The eye became infected and doctors had to remove it out of fear of long-term infection.

Chac Ca Dao Channel, which links Chau Thanh District in An Giang Province with Rach Gia City in Kien Giang Province, has been dubbed by many as a ‘crippled' channel; dozens of labourers working at brick kilns along the channel have suffered damage to their fingers, legs and feet in workplace accidents.

Another survey found an increasing number of women suffering from gynaecological diseases in the Cuu Long ( Mekong ) Delta.

More than 17,300 women in Vinh Long Province have suffered from gynaecological problems since early this year, an increase of 4,000 cases compared with last year's figure.

In Hau Giang Province and Can Tho City, these figures were 12,413 and 24,000 women, respectively.

Doctor Tran Thi Lai, head of the Hau Giang Province 's Population and Family Planning branch, attributed the trend to limited awareness among the women, and the shortage of clean water and hygienic living conditions.

Lai said many women were ashamed and had never visited the doctor for an annual gynaecological exam even though many were married and already had children.

Trinh said agriculture was one of the sectors that exposed workers to dangerous and harmful factors that adversely impacted their heath. The use of dangerous agriculture machines and tools, lack of control over agricultural chemicals and difficult conditions for work-related health care services were the source of many of the problems.

He said legal documents concerning labour accidents and occupational diseases in rural areas had yet to be completed. The problem was compounded by the shortage of inspectors to assess and supervise labour safety and hygiene standards nationwide.

There are currently only 600 inspectors working in this area./.

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Workplace accidents on the rise in rural areas

Farmers harvest the summer-autumn rice crop in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta province of An Giang. The number of accidents is on the rise as is the spread of occupational diseases in rural areas due to negligence. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Vu

HAU GIANG — Administrative and workplace negligence is causing an upward trend in the number of accidents and the spread of occupational diseases in rural areas.

Professor Doctor Le Van Trinh, head of the National Institute of Labour Protection, said there was still not an office in charge of controlling labour accidents and occupational diseases in rural areas.

"Administrative offices are still ignoring these areas," Trinh said.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs was the only office responsible for monitoring workplace accidents, he said.

Official figures on the number of occupational accidents were not available because fewer than 10 per cent of enterprises reported their labour accidents annually, Trinh added.

The National Institute of Labour Protection, therefore, has no other alternative but to rely on hospitals for information about accidents and occupational diseases in rural areas.

By conducting a survey of about 1,000 patients at hospitals throughout the country, the institute found that nearly 66 per cent of labourers working in the agriculture sector and craft villages had frequent contact with dust. About 60 per cent had regular contact with harmful chemicals.

Job site accidents which resulted in abrasions to hands or feet accounted for nearly 39 per cent of all agriculture production injuries. The figure was about 44 per cent for craft village accidents.

Labourers suffering from respiratory, skin and gynaecological diseases made up 42 per cent, 39 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively, at agriculture production sites; these figures were 54 per cent, 46 per cent and 38 per cent in craft villages.

A report released by the International Labour Organisation said awareness and knowledge about labour safety and hygiene as well as environment protection among labourers in rural areas was still limited.

The organisation said this lack of awareness was one of the main reasons for the rising number of labour accidents and occupational diseases in these areas.

Farmer Nguyen Thi Quit of Thuan Hoa Commune in Hau Giang Province's Long My District finally went to the Hau Giang General Hospital to receive treatment for her right eye when she could no longer stand the pain.

A leaf brushed across Quit's eye when she was harvesting sugar cane. It took a few days for the pain to surpass her threshold, but by that point the doctors told her it was too late. Her eye was permanently damaged.

In another case, farmer Tran Thanh Quang of Dong Thap Province's Lai Vung District lost an eye because he used water from a rice field to wash out his eye. The eye became infected and doctors had to remove it out of fear of long-term infection.

Chac Ca Dao Channel, which links Chau Thanh District in An Giang Province with Rach Gia City in Kien Giang Province, has been dubbed by many as a ‘crippled' channel; dozens of labourers working at brick kilns along the channel have suffered damage to their fingers, legs and feet in workplace accidents.

Another survey found an increasing number of women suffering from gynaecological diseases in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta.

More than 17,300 women in Vinh Long Province have suffered from gynaecological problems since early this year, an increase of 4,000 cases compared with last year's figure.

In Hau Giang Province and Can Tho City, these figures were 12,413 and 24,000 women, respectively.

Doctor Tran Thi Lai, head of the Hau Giang Province's Population and Family Planning branch, attributed the trend to limited awareness among the women, and the shortage of clean water and hygienic living conditions.

Lai said many women were ashamed and had never visited the doctor for an annual gynaecological exam even though many were married and already had children.

Trinh said agriculture was one of the sectors that exposed workers to dangerous and harmful factors that adversely impacted their heath. The use of dangerous agriculture machines and tools, lack of control over agricultural chemicals and difficult conditions for work-related health care services were the source of many of the problems.

He said legal documents concerning labour accidents and occupational diseases in rural areas had yet to be completed. The problem was compounded by the shortage of inspectors to assess and supervise labour safety and hygiene standards nationwide.

There are currently only 600 inspectors working in this area. — VNS

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Cham ethnic people celebrate Royal Festival

Cham ethnic people in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang are celebrating the Royal Festival after concluding their Ramadan month of fasting.

During the ten-day festival, Cham people hold parties, visit their relatives and attend recreational activities.

According to the Head of the Representative Board of the Islamic Cham Community, Musahaji, during the Ramadan 2010, Cham ethnic people in An Giang raised over 1 billion VND for social and charitable activities.

The Cham community in An Giang province was formed over 20 years ago.

There are 3,052 Cham households with 14,784 people, accounting for 0.66 percent of the province’s population, living in nine hamlets in the four districts of Chau Thanh, Chau Phu, Phu Tan and An Phu and Tan Chau Town .

Over the past years, the State has invested in transport infrastructure, education, and vocational training in the Cham area.

In 2010, An Giang province has spent over 5 billion VND sourced from the government’s Programmes 134 and 135 to open vocational training classes, build 10 transport works and upgrade schools for local Cham people./.

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