Recall that at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the French planned the inner city of Tra Vinh province (then Long Duc commune) with about tens of thousands of people, according to urban routes in the form of a chess board, covered with buildings. The shade of green trees on the sandy hill, now is the area of two Wards 1 and 2. After 1954, the inner city of the province expanded to the east, now is the area of two Wards 3 and 4. Until the day of peace, the area The hamlets of Long Binh (now Ward 5), Tri Tan (now Ward 6), and My Tien (now Ward 7) are still truly suburban and rural areas.
At that time, due to war conditions and limited local economic potential, the French colonialists, and later the Saigon government, did not pay enough attention to providing fresh water, not to mention clean water, to people. people in the inner city of the province. The whole town has only 02 wells drilled in the stadium area (current multi-purpose gymnasium location), which are then pumped to a tank located next to the large prison and death shrine, on Hang Me street with a capacity of several dozen. cubic yard. The capacity to supply fresh water is very limited, limited only to offices and some well-off households around the water fountain, within a radius of about half a kilometer.
Also due to war conditions, combined with the initial urbanization process, Phu Vinh provincial commune welcomed many disadvantaged people from rural districts to immigrate, residing crowdedly in 04 inner-city neighborhoods. hamlets on the outskirts of the provincial capital. The population has suddenly doubled or tripled, but the government’s water supply capacity remains… the same, so the issue of fresh water for drinking and daily activities is becoming increasingly difficult, to the point of haunting inner-city residents. County. Anywhere on this earth, fresh water is always the number one urgent need of human life (both animals and plants too).
Despite being urban dwellers, most people in the inner suburbs of Phu Vinh have a few to a dozen roofs, placed in rows on the gables, to store rainwater for drinking and drinking in a convenient way during the dry season. . Residents in the western area of the province, from Thanh Le to My Tien, Chua Phuong, Tri Tan… on sandy land, the neighboring neighbors go down to the common well to get water for bathing and washing every day. Suffering for hundreds of households specializing in food service, buying and selling fresh goods such as meat, fish, vegetables… at Tra Vinh market and residents of the area from Long Binh to Cu Lao hamlet, Pork oven hamlet… with alluvial soil. Alluvial ground, after digging down a few inches of land, the water smelled of mud and alum and was unusable. There is no other way, they have to rely on the water on the Long Binh River, which is true to the saying “river water, rice for the market”. The profession of “hired water bearer” in the provincial capital of Phu Vinh was born in the late 1950s, but the “labor tools” were only a shoulder pole, a pair of tin buckets (20 liters each) and the strength of mothers and sisters. labor. Twice a day, every time the river is full of water, dozens of women carefully carry the load of fresh water to the market and to each residential neighborhood. Many drops of salty sweat poured into the river in exchange for every pair of fresh water for life. Human strength is limited, with loads of more than 40 kilograms on their shoulders, mothers and sisters can only walk about a hundred meters away, along both sides of the Long Binh river. Then the wind became stronger and stronger, then the December tide brought salt water from the East Sea deep into the Long Binh River, until April of the following lunar year…
Ancient grandparents once summed up “whenever hungry, you have to crawl on your knees”, but hunger for fresh water is much more dangerous than hunger for rice. When the rain stopped, the water in the Long Binh river became salty, so the people in the inner city of Tra Vinh province found the source of fresh water in the wells on the fields of Thanh Le, My Tien, Chua Phuong… Even though there was no scientific testing. But reality has shown that nowhere is the source of fresh water as abundant and of good quality as on the Dau Bo sand dunes. At that time, there was no newly divided Dau Bo hamlet like today, but this place was the area adjacent to the three hamlets of Ky La, Da Can, and Bich Tri, considered the center of Hoa Thuan commune, located far from the inner city of the province. more than two kilometers, to the east. It is the endemic fresh water source in Dau Bo that has created quite famous craft villages that have existed and developed for hundreds of years, such as the cotton cultivation village (Bich Tri), Hang Xan village (Ky La), Lo Bun village, and Hang Xan village (Ky La). Puff cake (Da Can), a little further is Xuan Thanh Wine village…
Dau Bo fresh water is taken from fresh water wells in Bich Tri hamlet, about 200 meters below Dau Bo intersection to the area equal to the fence gate of Giua pagoda. Initially, these were wells from which local Khmer people used water to irrigate cotton fields. Later, they were dredged deep and expanded into wells with a diameter of ten or fifteen meters, four or five meters deep, surrounded by trees. covered with seeds, specializing in supplying fresh water for consumption within the provincial capital. The means of transport are 200 liter galvanized iron drums fixed vertically on a hand cart. The barrel body has a blue or red anti-rust paint layer and always carries the words “FRESHWATER ON THE COAST” as an affirmation of quality. Above the barrel body is the barrel mouth made from a machine gun bullet barrel with the bottom cut off to pour water into the barrel and when full, it is locked tightly. At the bottom there is a faucet made of an iron tube attached to the bike’s inner tube to control the amount of water released by opening or squeezing the inner tube. To increase the amount of water for each transport trip, people used wooden bars to form a floor in front of the barrel, between the two “car frames” and placed 4 or 6 tin barrels on it. That means, in theory, each trip can transport approximately 300 liters of water. By the mid-1960s, the profession of pushing water carts gradually overwhelmed the profession of hired water carriers in the inner city of Tra Vinh province. A family with two workers, buying their own water cart, making more than a dozen trips a day, is enough to take care of the family’s food and clothing. As for the poorer people who can’t afford a car, or just take advantage of their free time, there’s nothing to worry about, because the well owner always has a few cars ready to rent for a day or a trip, whatever you like. . Every profession has specialized terms, so does the water vehicle profession. The cart pusher “takes water” from the well owner – takes but pays; The cart pusher “exchanges water” for consumers – exchange but for money.
More than two kilometers of road from Dau Bo to the inner city of Tra Vinh province is a vital road, connecting transportation to the southern coastal districts, paved by the French in the early twentieth century but rarely maintained. , upgraded over the decades, combined with the devastation of the war, the plastic quickly peeled off and the stone protruded. Each water cart usually uses two workers, the one in front bends down to pull, the one behind bends his back to push (when entering the front of the market or the alley, one person holds the cart and the other carries each pair of water to each stall or house. people). Every year, around the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, and at its peak after the Lunar New Year, that army of more than a hundred vehicles, from dawn until dusk, rushes to bring the freshwater stream from Dau Bo to the inner city of the province. The road was bumpy, the water in the drums, the water in the tin barrels in front of the car was wavering, the waves were overflowing, loss along the road was inevitable, but eventually the car got used to the road, even though it was dark, they Memorize instructions to maneuver so that the water cart can maintain the best balance. The least amount of water spilled is also a little more income for each trip, for the whole day. As if to compensate, Dau Bo water is always priced “several tens of centimeters”, meaning several dozen percent, and is only used for drinking, compared to Chua Phuong water or Thanh Le water used for bathing and washing. For old people who are connoisseurs of eating and drinking, in addition to the row of roofs containing rainwater in the house, there is still a roof dedicated to storing Dau Bo water, just to enjoy a delicious pot of tea every dawn.
In the early 1970s, the water vehicle industry also took the step of “mechanization”. Some well owners use a pump motor instead of using human strength or pulleys to haul each bucket of water from the well into the vehicle. It’s as simple as that, but the water quality is significantly improved, the water looks crystal clear, with almost no residue left. To differentiate, well owners often add the letter A – FRESH WATER AT COAST A – and the price also adds a few centimeters. At the same time, the two families of Mr. Tu Chinh and Mr. Sau Mot boldly improved their auto-rickshaws or invested in small trucks with tanks of 5,000 liters, 10,000 liters and of course, the words FRESH WATER AT COAST A were also big. better, easier to see. However, hand-propelled water carts still have a competitive advantage, because they do not waste fuel and can wriggle deep into the market and every alley, making it easier to reach consumers.
By the end of the 1980s, especially after Tra Vinh province was re-established (May 1992), the government implemented many projects to build and complete the fresh water supply system (and then clean water) for people, from urban to rural. Tra Vinh town (and then Tra Vinh city) is no longer struggling with “thirsty” and cars with the words “FRESH WATER ON THE COAST” are no longer traveling up and down the road.
The profession of pushing water carts gradually retreated into the past.
TRAN DUNG
Tags: FRESHWATER COAST
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