Exercise with Sesan

Sesan is majestic with abundant water, many rapids and waterfalls. The river not only provides a source of energy to develop hydroelectric systems, but also contains rich and diverse aquatic resources with many rare and precious fishes. People from many provinces, who are attached to the river industry all year round, are “fascinated” by the scenery of this place, determined to stay with the plateau to make a living and build a new life in their second homeland.
Sesan is majestic with abundant water, many rapids and waterfalls. The river not only provides a source of energy to develop hydroelectric systems, but also contains rich and diverse aquatic resources with many rare and precious fishes. People from many provinces, who are attached to the river industry all year round, were “fascinated” by the scenery of this place, determined to stay with the plateau for a living and build a new life in their second homeland.

Build a new life Sitting on a motorboat, invested by Mr. Nguyen Van Trieu with an amount of more than 100 million VND, with all necessary equipment for tourists such as life jackets and lifebuoys, I feel the life of the people. The bed of the Sesan 4 Hydropower Plant has changed and is much different from 10 years ago, when they first came here to determine to build a new life, in their second homeland. The sound of the boat’s engine going up and down the lake reverberated and stirred the whole area. The wind blows on the lake surface, with a faint, strong smell characteristic of the river. Trieu’s houseboat pairing boat, tourists quickly spread out, some people are eager to feed fish, people go to see fish drying, making fish sauce, laughing and talking. As for me, hanging around Mr. Trieu to ask about his daily work. Mr. Trieu said, when the gray smoke behind the raft houses started to emerge, the men were ready to go and drop nets. 10 years living on this lake bed, his rafts and the people around him are getting bigger and bigger, sure, life is much better, old age and children can learn more words, but with The men from all over the country gather here are still the same: pulling nets at night, pulling nets during the day to drop nets and nets, and then sell fish to traders. Mr. Trieu confided, 10 years ago, the bed of Se San 4 lake was vast and lonely, with countless fish. On the first day of coming here, the people of Thua Thien Hue and Quang Binh fished gobies and chameleons; people in the west fish Dinh sesame, red-tailed snout; and the people in the central region, in the southeastern part of the country, they will catch any fish. “Now the fish are less and wiser, they just swim under the rotten wooden trunks of the lake bed, rarely come up, so if they drop the nets deep down, they will all be torn. In the past, there was a night when catching half a kilo of fish, at least from 10 kg to 20 kg. For the past few years, it’s only been a few kilograms, so you guys have to switch to fishing,” said Mr. Trieu, pointing out to tell me where there are rafts built by people there and floating on the lake. At about 17 o’clock, when the sunset fell, we got on the boat to follow Mr. Trieu and the households in the fishing village to prepare tools to cast nets and cast nets. The atmosphere becomes bustling by the sound of motorboats and fishermen calling each other. Trieu’s family has a total of 20 baskets, each with an investment of about four million dong. As he walked, he introduced me, each basket was placed at least 200 m apart, we clearly divided the area so that families did not concentrate on mining in one place, each time it took more than 1 It took hours to return to the shore because the distance was quite long. Each rack will be fitted with a battery used to connect to light a light bulb. That’s how to catch Sesan anchovies. Just stretch out, drop the lights down, the anchovies see the light and gather. Around 3 am the next morning, the boat went out to pull the nets and harvested the fish. Those who are afraid will bring it to Se San market to sell, diligently bring it back to dry and sell it gradually. Up to now, Sesan anchovy has become a famous specialty. When the batches are finished, the people of Sesan fishing village come back to pick up every piece of trash and waste floating on the river. It’s not because hundreds of people are always diving and roaming the river, so they do that but that’s the reason for living. Mr. Trieu said: Contaminating the river also means harming yourself, that thought is deeply rooted in the thinking of this fishing village. Living off the products on the river, more than a hundred people in Sesan fishing village always consider the river as a living being, like a soulmate to remind themselves not to do anything harmful to the river. Mr. Dang Van Thuoc, Director of Se San Cooperative, saw that Mr. Trieu’s house had visitors, so he rowed over to chat with us. He asserted that: I was one of the first people to come here with Mr. Trieu, well versed in all fishing channels, but I always remind the fishing village households to never fish in an extermination way, only with nets. Traditional , . We agree to make the eyeballs according to a certain size, only the big and right sized fish will be harvested and the fry and small fish will fall in to continue to grow. Especially from the 14th to the 20th day of the lunar calendar every month, the people of the fishing village will not pull the net and release the net because this is the breeding cycle of anchovies. In the most difficult times, absolutely no one is allowed to use explosives to fish in the river. It is a crime, it is to destroy the river. Gently stepping through the wooden planks to connect the floating rafts of the houses together, helping the nearby families to come to the house to chat, I met Mr. Nguyen Van Tung, who is over 70 years old this year. With a bright smile when welcoming a stranger to visit, he happily said: Every morning he wakes up very early to wait for the morning sun, and then begins his working day. “In the past, the whole family of six of us lived in a river down to the east, but there people were indifferent to the river, did not protect the river, so the fate of people was poor when the river was polluted. more shrimp. Up here, everyone has a sense of preserving the water flow and the landscape, so life has been warmed up,” said Mr. Tung. Beautiful fishing village After nearly 10 years of clinging to the Se San river, the lives of the fishing village households are still precarious, their children cannot go to school, their lives are floating along the water. Through the monitoring process, the households in the fishing village are all diligent, honest and have the desire to settle down for a long time, so the leaders of Kon Tum province have created conditions for the households to gradually stabilize their lives. The Lunar New Year of the Pig in 2019, the joy of the fishing village was multiplied many times when all 29 households with more than 100 people were imported, were granted 400 m2 of residential land and each household was supported 50 million VND. to make a house. From a place of floating and precarious living along the water, the people of the fishing village have been settled. Mr. Nguyen Van Trieu said, with the same amount of 50 million dong, most families in the fishing village try to contribute from 50 to more than 100 million dong to build a house. Therefore, 29 spacious and spacious Great Solidarity houses with an area of ​​​​from 80 m2 to 120 m2 with corrugated iron roof and flower tile background were inaugurated. Ashore, many families were able to buy motorbikes, televisions and refrigerators. Comrade Tran Trung Dung, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Chairman of the People’s Committee of Ia Toi Commune, said that from the capital of the national target program on building new countryside, the fishing village was invested by the State with more than three billion VND. pull electricity from the grid to the village. In the coming time, we are focusing on bringing clean water to each household because this is still the most urgent issue today. For the education of children in the fishing village to be what it is today, families are always grateful to Mr. Nguyen Quang Tho, Head of Education and Training Department of Ia H’Drai district. Mr. Tho went to each campaigner, creating conditions to bring their children to class. Mr. Tho shared his memories of the first days of mobilizing families: Most of the people in the fishing village were afraid to send their children to school because it took a long time to pick them up. They think very simply that their parents and themselves who were born and raised on the raft are literate but still live well. However, I was not discouraged, went out to friends to talk, persevered, and encouraged each family so that the children could go to school. Thanks to that, all children born in the fishing village today who reach school age can go to school fully. Comrade Vo Anh Tuan, Deputy Secretary of the District Party Committee, Chairman of the District People’s Committee Ia H’Drai said: In the coming time, the district government will focus on supporting and investing more methodically in developing the tourism economy in the province. fishing village, to effectively exploit this potential. Tourism cannot be generalized but must deal with specific problems. For example, it is necessary to build a tour with a specific schedule so that visitors feel like coming back and recommending to friends to visit. The overnight stay of tourists at the raft can only meet a few, but not guarantee for large groups. In addition, the district will seek and call for capable and enthusiastic investors to invest in building more tourist attractions in the lakebed area, thereby forming a closed ecotourism chain. with its own charms. Deep lake night. The raft house of Mr. Nguyen Van Trieu sways with each wave. Lying down listening to the waves crashing into the raft house, from time to time there was the sound of fish jumping below, we kept awake. The alarm clock sounded at 3 am, I quickly got up to prepare to follow Mr. After two hours, when we returned, the sun began to shine. Before parting after a night of experiencing the life of the people of Sesan fishing village, I made an appointment with the people here to come back to witness the change when the tourism potential on the bed of Sesan 4 becomes a reality. Se San fishing village will become an attractive destination on the travel map of Kon Tum, the Central Highlands region in particular and the whole country in general.