Heavy rains and the release of water from the Hoa Binh, Thac Ba, Tuyen Quang, and Son La hydroelectric reservoirs in northern Vietnam have caused the river to overflow, flooding alluvial flats along its path and the mudflat.
Normally the mudflat can be reached in minutes by motorbike through alleys in Tay Ho District such as An Duong and Tu Lien, but it is now under three meters of water.
People seeking to commute for agricultural activities, sell produce and attend school or work perforce have to use the boat, a rudimentary flat-bottomed vessel with an outboard motor.
At 1 p.m. on Aug.13 Vu Cao Duc, 36, a farmer from Yen Phu Ward, was rushing to catch the ferry. He owns a garden on the mudflat, and what used to be a brief motorbike commute now takes him 30 minutes.
“In my 11 years of farming here I have never seen the water remain so high for so long,” he says. “If we don't take the boat, the other option is the road from Long Bien Bridge, but it’s far and very unsafe.”
Thanh Hoa, 60, wheels her bicycle loaded with two sacks of chicken feed onto the tiny vessel. Upon reaching the mudflat, she cycles for nearly a kilometer before boarding a second boat to cross another flooded section. “It feels like the Mekong Delta,” she says.
The boat owner, Hoang Van Toan (green shirt), 48, says this is the first time he has seen the paths remain underwater for a month straight.
Until 2019 ferries were common here, but most operators sold their boats as the river gradually dried up. This year Toan and his wife dusted out their small boat, previously used for farming, for use as a ferry.
They bought life jackets and rescue equipment, and have been operating trips from early morning until 7:30 p.m. every day.
“Sometimes people call me at night when they need to get across urgently,” Toan says. “Knowing the river well, I don’t mind.”
Most passengers are mudflat residents needing to reach Hanoi for work or school, some others are city dwellers tending to crops and livestock on the mudflat.
Toan charges VND10,000 (US$0.40) per person, but takes children for free.
Once on the mudflat, people must navigate a second flooded area stretching several dozen meters where the water is over a meter deep.
Locals use tiny boats to reach their homes and farms.
Pham Trung Dung, 46, makes four or five trips daily to the mudflat to visit his garden, and keeps a motorbike on each side to make travel easy.
“At normal times the trip takes just 10 minutes,” he says. “Now, with the waiting time and walking, it takes up to 45 minutes. I just hope the water recedes soon.”
Nguyen Van Tap, 56, has lived on the mudflat for over 20 years.
Every day he waits at the ferry pier to collect pig feed his wife sends from the city.
His house, located on higher ground, is fine but many low-lying areas have been submerged, forcing families to evacuate.
“Fortunately, we have the boat; otherwise, we’d be stranded,” he says. “Those in lower areas are much worse off.”
After 3 p.m. many people living in the mudflat load vegetables and produce onto boats for sale in the city.
Mudflat residents hired Toan's boat to transport nearly a dozen bunches of bananas to the city. Normally they transport it by motorbike, but now multiple boat trips are required due to its small size.
In the late afternoon Anh, 55, takes the boat from the mudflat to pick up her twin granddaughters from school.
“I’m uneasy about taking little children across such a large expanse of water, but we have no choice,” she says.
Officials in Tay Ho District say the flooding has lasted nearly a month though workers are regularly deployed to clean up and prevent garbage from blocking drains since the water being released from the reservoirs keeps the Red River high.
"We remind locals to avoid overloading boats and to always wear life jackets."
The mudflat, which spans 328 hectares, straddles the districts of Tay Ho, Ba Dinh, Hoan Kiem, and Long Bien, with the largest area belonging to Hoan Kiem.
Nearly 100 households have been living, farming and fishing here for decades.
Despite the regular flooding, land law violations and illegal construction persist, with some families erecting temporary structures and even steel-framed houses.
The paths leading to the islet from Tay Ho remain outside official planning.
