Vegetable gardens on the river bank

These vegetable gardens would, in the past, have been planted only in the dry season when the water level had subsided, leaving behind a layer of fresh silt. Today, with the huge Da River dam upstream the water level is much more controlled and the annual flooding much less. That makes it unclear how long the fertility of these river bank gardens can be maintained. As on Bai Giua, the island in the Red River near Hanoi, there's a tendency for permanent settlement and cultivation on the sandbanks in the river.