Although nearly a year has passed since the 2025 rainy and flood season, the scars and damages inflicted by the natural disasters remain highly visible. Many households in the village continue to live in a state of constant anxiety and worry within narrow temporary shacks.

The four-member family of Lò Văn Thoan is currently living in a temporary shack measuring about 20 square meters, built on land borrowed from a relative. Recalling the horrific rainy night in the early hours of August 1, 2025, Thoan remains deeply shaken.

“Towards dawn, it rained heavily. Noticing rocks and soil sliding down behind my house, I took a flashlight to check. As the landslide intensified, I rushed inside to call my wife. The two of us barely managed to carry our child and run outside before the rocks and dirt came crashing in, collapsing the walls and breaking the bed. If we had been just a few minutes late, the consequences would have been unimaginable,” Thoan recounted.

After years of hard work, saving, and taking out an additional bank loan of VND 150 million, the couple finally gathered nearly VND 300 million to build a solid 125-square-meter house. In mid-2025, just as the house reached its structural completion and was awaiting paint, a sudden landslide buried it completely, wiping out all their hard work.

For nearly the past year, Thoan’s family has had to reside in this cramped temporary shelter. While sunny days are manageable, every time it rains, the entire family is filled with uneasy suspense. Thoan confided that they are now homeless while burdened with a heavy bank debt, and their only hope is for the State to soon arrange a resettlement area so his family can have a stable home, focus on earning a living, and pay off the loan. He added that working far away brings him no peace of mind when his wife and children do not have a secure place to live at home.

Thoan’s family is not alone, as dozens of households in Bắng Chộc village live in an anxious state before the upcoming rainy season. Not far away, inside the single-story house of less than 100 square meters owned by Lò Văn Đức, three separate households totaling six members are sharing one roof. This includes the family of Lò Thị Buốn (three people), Bạc Cầm Bảo (two people), and Lò Thị Mưu. In this cramped space, the kitchen has to be set up under a tarp in the yard. The residents here pool together VND 500,000 per month for rent, while also contributing rice and cooking together like a single family.

Previously, up to five households lived together under this roof, but two split off to set up temporary shacks and build their own makeshift shelters a few months ago. This makeshift lifestyle has dragged on for nearly a year. Despite facing shortages of all kinds, what worries the local residents most is not the overcrowding, but the fact that this year’s rainy season is approaching while a new place of residence has yet to be allocated.

Lò Văn Sáng, whose family is among those slated for relocation, shared that with the rainy season coming, everyone is extremely worried, remembering how last year’s floodwaters rose high and submerged their homes. They hope a resettlement area will be available before this rainy season so they can stabilize their lives and production with peace of mind.

Lò Thị Hiêng, Secretary of the Bắng Chộc village Party Cell, noted that the village currently consists of 42 households, 21 of which were heavily affected by the natural disaster on August 1, 2025. Since the flood, the villagers’ lives have been fraught with difficulties, with some erecting temporary shacks and others renting rooms, leaving the elderly and young children to live under deficient conditions. What the residents long for most right now is to soon have a resettlement site before the rains start to stabilize their lives.

Through reviews, apart from the 21 households in Bắng Chộc village, Na Son commune currently hosts more than 50 other households living in high-risk landslide zones who need to be arranged and stabilized. Nguyễn Thanh Lâm, Vice Chairman of the Na Son Commune People’s Committee, stated that the locality has repeatedly checked and reviewed unsafe points and reported to higher authorities to propose population stabilization plans.

For Bắng Chộc village, Na Son commune has proposed that the Provincial People’s Committee construct a centralized resettlement area for 21 households with 72 residents. The resettlement zone, spanning about 1.5 ha, would feature a system of roads, electricity, domestic water, a community house, and an irrigation work, with an estimated total investment of around VND 15 billion. The locality also proposed building a resettlement area for 30 households with 147 residents in Tìa Ló village, with a total budget of approximately VND 35 billion.

The 2026 rainy season is now close at hand. Inside their makeshift shacks, dozens of households in Na Son wait day by day for a safe new residence to early end the state of anxious suspense that has dragged on for nearly a year. Promptly deploying residential arrangement and relocation projects in disaster-prone zones will give residents safe shelter, while creating conditions for them to stabilize their lives, develop production, and step-by-step overcome the consequences left behind by natural disasters.