300 families with over 500 members in Ngoc Lieu hamlet, a small riverside village in Hanoi’s Thuong Tin district, have been isolated from the outside world for decades because there is no bridge.

For daily commute, people have to be aboard one small boat covered in rust. The single boat, which is the village’s only boat, has no engine and moves when someone tugs on a rope. It works like this: the long rope is always tied to both sides of the river and when a villager is on the boat, he/she just has to pull at this rope to travel away from or towards the village.

The travel distance by road from Ngoc Lieu to another hamlet is as far as 7 kilometers so local residents prefer crossing the river by this method.

However, there are concerns that students could risk their lives crossing the river this way.

35-year-old Nguyen Thi Man, a local resident, said: “The boat has capsized several times and my two children and their textbooks got soaked in the water as a result. But thanks to God, they are alive because they were accompanied by adults.”

“During the rainy season, I keep my children at home for fear they could face danger from the river,” she worries.

Hoang Van Thanh, chairman of People’s Committee of Nghiem Xuyen commune, told Tuoi Tre that a bridge connecting Ngoc Lieu and Xom Moi hamlet is expected to be built early next year at a cost of VND25 million (US$1,197).