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Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Environment
Zoe Osborne

‘Meaningful work’: Volunteers clean Ho Chi Minh City’s fetid canals by hand

Al Jazeera Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam
Sai Gon Xanh volunteers pick up rubbish in a fetid canal [Zoe Osborne/Al Jazeera]

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – It is barely 7am when Nguyen Luong Ngoc and his team of young volunteers meet in the depths of District 12 in Ho Chi Minh City.

A vast pile of takeaway breakfast boxes waits on one side of the narrow road. Behind them lies a stinking canal stuffed with rubbish; its water black and barely moving.

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