One of Hanoi’s telltale tangles of black wires was recently named among the world’s worst electrical wiring systems by a British engineering publication.
The UK-based Institution of Engineering and Technology’s magazine, E&T, recently asked its 138,000 engineer readers to find the worst and most dangerous electrical wiring around the globe. Of course, Vietnam’s creative – and often cluttered – electrical wiring was a prime candidate for most dangerous.
Vietnam’s capital city was among the 12 finalists shortlisted by E&T after receiving 500 submissions. The last round of voting put Hanoi in third place for one of its street corner wiring installations, losing out only to an office block in India’s Chennai and a hotel in the Maldives. The office block won first place with 50% of the votes.
E&T describes Hanoi’s electrical wiring as “a collection of telecom, lighting and possibly mains cables – exact details being impossible to tell as all of the cables are a shade of black”.
“Fingers crossed for customers asking for support with wiring emergencies!” the magazine writes.
Back in Vietnam, the Ministry of Public Security said that almost 60% of all fires and explosions in the first six months of 2016 were caused by electrical problems, according to VnExpress.
This is not, however, the first brush with fame for Vietnam’s electrical wiring. In 2013, the news outlet reports, Bill Gates visited the country and shared a Facebook photo of a tangle of wires that is so common in urban Vietnam.
[Photo via E&T]
