Rice papers are spread to dry before making rice noddle in Lo Cuong village of Tu Minh ward, Hai Duong city (Photo: VNA) Hai Duong (VNA) - Urbanisation in rural areas hascaused many traditional craft villages to shrink over the years.
But the process does not seem to haveaffected villages around Hai Duong city in the northern province of the samename. Many traditional craft villages hadsurvived and even flourished, bringing a prosperous life to local people.
Lo Cuong village making dried rice noodlein Tu Minh ward is an example.
Production in the village started in the1960s, and in recent years, along with the strong development of the province,Lo Cuong village has adapted to preserve and expand the noodle profession.
At present, the village has about 140households engaged in dried rice noodle production. In the past, all the milling, steaming,drying and cutting were done manually.
The old-style production method is stillused by some families, but more and more households are investing in modernmachinery to reduce production costs and increase productivity.
According to the villagers, the machineshad increased productivity by up to 10 times.
“In the past, we could only process200-300kg of rice per day, depending on the weather. Now with the machines we can go through 2-3 tonnes of rice per day whatever the weather,” Lien, the owner of anoodle workshop, was quoted as saying.
A tonne of rice produced 900kg of driedrice noodles, she said.
During busy periods, her workshop operateday and night producing nearly 3 tonnes of noodles a day. This production had given villagers stableincomes.
“My family earn 60-70 million VND (2,600-3,000 USD) per month,” said the workshop owner.
She also employs 12 labourers who are paidmonthly salaries of 8-10 million VND (340-430 USD).
Last year, Lo Cuong dried rice noodles wererecognised as a provincial brand.
Similarly, Duc Minh carpentry village inThanh Binh ward has developed rapidly in recent years.
The 100-year-old village now has 140household-scale and 80 large-scale carpentry workshops.
The village produced mainly householdfurniture which was sold in many northern provinces, said Nguyen Van Tinh, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Thanh Binh ward.
The workshops have also invested in modernequipment for production.
Nguyen Xuan Cach, a workshop owner who has50 years of experience in the carpentry profession, said: “My workshop has allkinds of modern machinery imported from Japan, such as milling machines,pulleys, planers, grinders and rollers. I have contracts around the year whichbring in 70 million VND (3,000 USD) per month.”
The operation of the craft villages in HaiDuong had caused environmental issues which have affected local people’s livesand health, the e-newspaper reported.
“The carpentry workshops obviouslydischarge sawdust, noise and fumes. Local authorities want to preserve the traditional professions but also to encourage people to care for the environment,” said Tinh.
In fact, the ward wanted to move theworkshops out of residential areas, but it was impossible due to a lack ofland, he said.
Instead they have asked workshop owners toapply measures to reduce the amount of dust and noise pollution. Now many workshops have extractors and havebuilt walls to reduce the noise.
Reducing the number of smallhousehold-scale workshops has also helped minimise the risks of environmentalpollution.
“In the past, my family produced woodenfurniture at home,” said Nguyen Duc Vang, a carpenter in Duc Minh village.
“But my house was not large enough toensure production and meet environmental protection standards set by localauthorities, so I started working at a bigger facility,” Vang said.
The treatment of waste water and gas hasalso been a problem for the dried rice noodle village.
Tran Ho Dang, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of Hai Duong city, said: “The city has decided to move workshops withhigh risks of environmental pollution out of the inner city.”
“But the traditional craft villages willremain in the same places. The households have been encouraged to use advancedand environmentally-friendly technology,” he said.
Next year, the city plans to carry out awaste water treatment project and a drainage system for the city’s westernregion, where Lo Cuong and Duc Minh are located.
The projects will help manage environmentalissues in the villages.
However, to develop sustainably, localauthorities should provide training programmes to help villagers improve productionwhile protecting the environment./.
VNA
