Vietnam’s Black Canal dwellers living on edge

Waiting to leave: Thanh (left) on her porch on the Xuyen Tam canal in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. — AFP

Ho Chi Minh City: On the banks of Ho Chi Minh City’s Xuyen Tam canal, the houses come in many forms.

Short or tall, pieced together from scraps of wood, or metal or plastic, some tilt precariously over the polluted water’s edge.