More than 200 students in central Nghe An Province have had to commute to school by boat for years due to a shortage of funds for a bridge.

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The students, as well as 400 households, live in Nam Dan District\'s Nam Thuong Commune, which is divided by Lam River, one of the largest rivers in the north-central region. The river can be as deep as 25m in the dry season and even deeper in rainy periods.

Nguyen Thi Than, a 7th grader at Nam Thuong Secondary School, said she was very scared to start with, but gradually got used to travelling by boat everyday.

Than said all the children wore lifejackets on the boat, but few could swim well.

Nguyen Thi Tham, a resident in the commune, said there was a small road leading to the school in Nam Dan Town, but the 15-km journey took the children at least 30 minutes by bike.

"Most choose to go by boat as it only takes them five minutes to get to school," Tham said, "but many parents force their children to cycle on stormy days because the river is so dangerous and windy at that time."

Tham added that the kids usually had to get up at 5am if they were going to bike to school on time.

Nguyen Viet Son, standing vice chairman of the commune\'s Party Committee said that all of the boats were under control and were equipped with lifejackets for passengers.

He said that the commune has asked relevant authorities for financial support to build a bridge, but had not received a reply.

Without financial support, there will be no bridge for local residents," he said.

The construction of a bridge is estimated to cost VND1 billion (USD48,000).

There are about 90 wharves with hundreds of boats in Nghe An Province. The provincial authority has already supplied about 6,300 lifejackets and 1,900 floating schoolbags to students who have to travel to school by boat and plans to supply 3,000 more lifejackets this year.

Five years ago, 19 students died on their way to school after a boat, owned by a local resident from Lang Khe Commune, sank. The boatman was sentenced to 11 years in prison. The vessel was said to have been carrying 63 passengers instead of its capacity of 12.

In 2009, a boat carrying 18 students to school in Chau Hanh Commune, Quy Chau District suddenly overturned. Luckily, there were no fatalities as the boat was only 4 metres away from the shore when it capsized.