“We have demonstrated proof of concept. Now, we’re monitoring the movement of the houses and I’ve already made some minor improvements,” she says.

The beauty of her system is that it can be fitted to existing homes, she says. And she believes that anyone with good carpentry skills can easily make the alterations.

“It took three weeks to fit the first two houses and then two weeks to do the second two as we were figuring out how to do it. When people know what they’re doing they could do it in a few days,” she says.

The initial cost of the retrofit was $2,400 per home – expensive by Vietnamese standards – but she believes this could come down to about $800 per home.

The idea has proved popular with local people who believe that this is a good way to make their homes flood-proof, says Prof English.

For people in this part of Vietnam, living and working on the water is a way of life.

“The bigger and heavier the house the more stable it’s going to feel. It feels a bit like being on a houseboat. But in this part of Vietnam there is flooding every year for several months and everyone has boats because most of the transport is on the river,” she says.