For those of you familiar with Hoi An, I am in the Cam An area looking north. The bridge is Hai Ba Trung road; the beach highway to Da Nang is to the right and downtown and Hoi An Old Town are to the left.
I am not sure what kind of fishing this boat is used for. It probably stays close to the coast, and may never get out of the estuary where it is resting in this photo. It’s rigged with at least one light, which suggests it is out at night.
The rice paddies around my home are serviced by a system of irrigation canals and ditches that ensure the fields have ample water. Sluice gates are positioned in a number of places to cut off, reduce, or re-direct the flow of water. From time to time, I see local farmers using the gates to adjust the flow. There is certainly a water management agency in charge of this activity, though I do not know how it is organized or at what level of local government it exists.
I also do not know how long the irrigation system has existed here, though I do know there are continuing efforts to improve it. In the last couple of months there have been several small projects to upgrade waterways. Sections of the system that had consisted of earthen ditches were dug out and lined with concrete walls and floors. I presume this reduces erosion and water loss from seepage, and increases the flow rate of the water.
After the horrific storm on Sunday, the rain tapered off and there were only sporadic showers overnight. At ten o’clock Monday morning, the lane in the distance was passable, but the lane running by the wall on the left that would get me there was not. It was early afternoon before I was able to get away from my house – by a very roundabout route – to do some much needed food shopping. It is Monday evening as I post this. It has not rained all day and the flood water has started to recede. Unfortunately, there is plenty of rain in the forecast for the next few days.
The air was so damp that I had a little condensation in the camera which fogged up some of the photos I took this morning. I worked to clear this up with Photoshop, but the row of houses in the background still does not have as much contrast as it might.
Along with tourism, fishing, aquafarming, and rice and vegetable farming are important parts of the Hoi An economy. While tourism has had a very rough several months because of the pandemic, the water-based and agricultural economies in Hoi An seem to be doing just fine.
The waterwheels aerate the water in the enclosed pond to keep it from becoming brackish.
Hoi An farmers have flooded the recently harvested rice fields and are now preparing the soil to plant a new crop of rice.
