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The 21st-century communal well

Quy Nhơn, summer 2023: the communal well is still there, upgraded from a flick of the wrist to a dozen electric pumps.

vietnam

Quy Nhơn, summer 2023.

Back in the 20th century, we talked about the 21st century as something grand. Communal wells would be long forgotten.

Here we are, 2023. The communal well is still there. The inefficiency is still there too, upgraded from a flick of the wrist to a dozen Chinese-made electric pumps: one per household, each with its own pipe, its own wire, and a raincoat cut from a plastic water bottle.

A round concrete well crowded with a dozen electric pumps, each with its own grey pipe, hose and wiring; many motors are wrapped in cut-off plastic water bottles, one covered with a scrap of tarpaulin tied on with green rope.

Quy Nhơn has the other 21st century as well. Grand tourist resorts, mostly empty. Grand software campuses, mostly empty too, glass and red, behind a mound of dumped earth.

A modern red-and-white building with a glass tower, fenced off behind mounds of dumped earth and a rutted road with litter in the verge, green hills behind.

Update, 11 October 2026. Three years on, the wells of Bãi Xép made the national news: nearly 20 pumps on the central well, and a 500 m³-a-day pumping station proposed, still waiting for a budget.

Nothing further on file.