VietNamNet Bridge - The majority of the lakes in Hanoi have become polluted as they are managed with the attitude that ‘everybody’s business is nobody’s business’.

On October 26, thousands of dead fish were found floating on Linh Dam Lake in Hoang Liet ward of Hoang Mai district.

The mass fish deaths at West Lake, the largest in Hanoi, in early October also caught the attention of the public. 

Just two weeks after the news about the mass fish deaths appeared in the media, the city’s residents suffered from a bad odor from Van Quan Lake in Ha Dong district. A lot of families had to evacuate because of the smell.

In June, several tons of fish were found dead in Hoang Cau Lake in Dong Da district.

Truong Manh Tien, chair of the Hanoi Lake Club, commented that the continued mass fish death cases in Hanoi in the last 1-2 months showed that lakes have become alarmingly polluted. 

It is estimated that 95-97 percent of lakes in Hanoi are polluted.

“Some lakes have even died. Linh Quang, for example, cannot be called a lake anymore. It is one of the most polluted lakes in Hanoi,” he said.

The majority of the lakes in Hanoi have become polluted as they are managed with the attitude that ‘everybody’s business is nobody’s business’.

Also according to Tien, many ponds and lakes in Hanoi have been encroached upon, thus becoming stagnant ponds and seriously polluted.

The West Lake, for example, has lost tens of hectares of water surface. A recent report showed that West Lake’s area has narrowed to 470 hectares instead of 500 hectares as previously reported, according to Tien.

Nguyen Ngoc Ly, director of the Center for Environmental Studies and Community, said that most of the lakes in Hanoi are in isolated urban areas and many of them are polluted. 

By the end of 2015, Hanoi had lost 17 lakes with 70,000 square meters of surface water.

“Fish death cases happen every year at lakes in Hanoi. However, it is  abnormal that hundreds of tons of fish die just within one week, when there is a management board for West Lake,” Ly said.

The water is polluted, the area has narrowed, landscapes have degraded, and the ecosystem has been seriously hurt.

Ly stressed that it is the right time for Hanoi’s authorities to take action to save the lakes with long-term solutions. 

“There should be an agency in charge of implementing the task. And there must be someone who comes forward to take responsibility for this,” she said, adding that the attitude that ‘everyone’s business is nobody’s business’ must stop.

Thien Nhien