For permanently enduring stench and hazards from waste materials and chemicals in the underground sewer system of Ho Chi Minh City, a drainage worker receives a low salary, ranging from VND4-8 million (US$192-384) a month.

This is the small reward for their daily labor inside the sewer conduits, full of foul-smelling waste water, broken glass, injection needles, and even chemicals illegally dumped by factories and processing and manufacturing plants.

Thanks to the work of these people, mostly men, all hired by the state-owned Ho Chi Minh City Urban Drainage Company, the city’s streets flood less, especially during the raining season.

However, the low benefits the workers receive are quite contrary to what the chief of the company is earning, around VND216.7 million ($10,400) a month, or 27 times higher than the best-paid laborer.

A working day

According to the Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Development Studies, the city has over 1,142km of sewer conduits and 816 outlets to release waste water into canals and rivers.

The daily job of the workers is to dredge up waste and materials blocking the flow in the underground system and take it to local garbage processing units.

A 25-year-old worker named T told Tuoi Tre at his working site, “It is terrible to dredge a clogged-up sewer.”

Another worker named N added, “Dredging a sewer near processing and manufacturing plants is just miserable. Chemicals cause itches and blisters on the skin. The odor is almost unbearable. Just 15 minutes of touching the waste water leaves my hand a dirty red.”

Waste and water inside the sewers comes up to the worker’s knees, N said, looking up to avoid waste water leaking down from the top of the conduit.

Scooping up a dustpan full of waste, he lifted it up to hand to other worker waiting above him to take it away. Passers-by held their nose after smelling the waste the laborers were working with.

“The bad smell goes home with me every night. Sometimes I feel that my wife and children still smell the odor when we get together for dinner,” said N, who has worked this job for 16 years.

In areas with high tides, workers have to do their job at night, beginning at 1:00am or 2:00am and finishing in the early morning.

“Creeping into the sewer conduit at night is very cold. We do hard work but we have to hold our breath from the odor,” said a worker, adding that waste materials sometimes rise up to his chest during high tide.

A group of drainage workers often carry 200 liters of fresh water on their motorbikes to take baths after leaving the sewer.

Drainage workers are having lunch on street pavement near their working site (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

Seasonal workers

A regular worker for the city’s drainage company earns VND8 million ($384) a month, while a seasonal laborer doing the same job is paid just half that amount. With some extra allowances, a seasonal worker eventually gets around VND5 million ($240) a month.

A seasonal worker is paid VND170,000 ($8) a day if he works inside the underground sewer conduit and VND150,000 a day if he stands on the ground to pour out waste.

“And seasonal workers take turns going down the conduit to earn the extra VND20,000 a day,” said a worker.

Mr. TTM, 47, who left his family in the Mekong Delta and has worked the job for six years, said he can save only VND1 million a month to send back to his family to help his children go to school.

“I know this job is harmful but we can’t find another job now. I expect the company to grant hazard pay so that I will have a better life,” he told Tuoi Tre.

“I miss my children back home, but I can’t afford their expenses in this city.

“Some days, I go to a tea shop near my work site to buy a drink, just to have a shelter to take a break in. I collect the drink bottles and send them home for the children. They like it.

“To help save more, I stopped smoking,” he said.