Workers from the HCM City Urban Environment Company start their working day on the canal from 6 am.
Each day they collect about 10 tonnes of rubbish of all kinds including plastic bags, bottles, tree branches, or dead fish. Sometimes they find a large-sized mattress thrown into the canal.
One of the workers, Nguyen Xuan Son, 51, said that he has been doing the work for 20 years.
"It is a really hard job," he said. "We have to smell the bad odour coming from the waste every day. Sometimes we even get the wastewater thrown on us from people living in surrounding houses when working on the canal.
The workers try to slow down when entering a narrow area with many dilapidated houses and tents built on weak pillars.
"Some people like our work because we help clean their living area but some others are afraid that their houses may collapse when our boat runs along."
Besides collecting rubbish, the workers set up nets to prevent the waste from spreading to other areas.
Son said that although the work is hard, their salary is slow at between VND 4-5 million (USD174-217) a month.
"We usually work from 6 am to 5 pm," he said. "Sometimes we have to work in the evening if there is a large amount of rubbish. The only reason that has made me stay with this work is my love for the canal. I just want to make it clean."
The Nhieu Loc - Thi Nghe Canal runs nearly nine kilometres through Districts 1, 3, Phu Nhuan, Tan Binh and Binh Thanh and flows to the Sai Gon River. The canal used to face serious pollution some 10 years ago before local authorities carried out a project to upgrade the entire waterway of the canal. The project was started in 2002 and cost over VND8.6 trillion (USD374 million) with funding from the World Bank.
In 2011, HCM City also spent more than VND550 billion upgrading and expanding 15 kilometres of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa streets. The area which used to experience bad odour has now attracted lots of visitors and local people coming to enjoy the fresh air and doing exercise.
Workers from the HCM City Urban Environment Company are still collecting rubbish from the canal every day to keep it clean and ensure proper water flow.
