Take back the plaque: Residents in Ha Giang's Dong Van old quarter have asked to return the national relic title bestowed on their ancient houses which have been crumbling for years, leaving them with poor living conditions. — File Photo

HA NOI (VNS)— Many residents living under the so-called "ancient roofs", in the northern province of Ha Giang's Dong Van old quarter, are having to put up with poor living conditions while their houses crumble.

According to Sung Dai Hung, secretary of the Dong Van District's Party Committee, the district is home to around 40 houses over 100 years old.

"Almost half of the ancient houses in the area are seriously degraded and badly in need of repair," said Hung, adding that many residents wanted to waive the title "relic" that had been bestowed on their houses.

"Their houses are run down but the residents are forced to preserve the status quo. If they do not get funds to repair and restore their houses soon, they want to return the title so they can rebuild their living spaces."

Both local residents and authorities admit the reason the houses had been let go was lack of State funds. Meanwhile, it is regulated that those living in the "relics" could not fix their houses without official permission from relevant culture authorities.

Dong Van was recognised as a national relic in 2008. In 2011, Ha Giang Province proposed to extract VND1 billion (US$48,000) from the national culture target to preserve the old quarter. But the project remains on the table.

Also, another ambitious project worth around VND50 billion ($2.4 million) to restore the whole of Dong Van old quarter has been submitted to the Government.

While waiting for the projects to be approved and implemented, residents are still living in buildings that have lots of leaks and cracks.

Resident Hoang Thi Tan moaned as she gazed at the 100-year-old house that was crumbling and decaying.

"The back walls are propped up by many wooden pillars while the roof was destroyed by the large hailstones early this year," Tan said.

Her family cannot find the tiles to replace the broken ones because replicas are not available in the province. Any visitor to her house at the moment would find lots of basins placed on the second floor to catch water from the leaks.

"What we fear most in the summer is the rain. Heavy rain may break the roof. In that cases, tiles may fall down," she said.

Nguyen Thi Song, whose five-room house is much more dilapidated than Tan's, said: "We want to rebuild our house. I don't mind if it is ranked a relic."

Another unique house type in Dong Van is the trinh tuong (earthen) house.

Most local residents don't want to keep their traditional trinh tuong houses because of the high cost of repairs. Trinh tuong houses are made of clay but are very solid and firm.

"They do not want to retain trinh tuong houses, simply because repairing them would cost them much more than building new ones," said Nguyen Trung Ngoc, the Dong Van District People's Committee deputy chairman.

Cost of trinh tuong house buildings was very high because construction materials have to be imported from China and Laos, Ngoc said.

Dong Van District is now home to numerous ethnic minority groups including Tay, Hoa, Dao, Nung and Mong.

Dong Van is a reminder of the recent similar situation where many households in Duong Lam ancient village have asked to return the title "nation relic" so they can fix their houses.

As a crucial step towards tackling the situation, the Institute of Relics Preservation has presented a master plan to preserve and restore the ancient village. The plan has been highly applauded. Thus, hopefully, things will get done in the Dong Van old quarter. — VNS