VietNamNet Bridge – Chairman of Bac Kan Province People's Committee Hoang Ngoc Duong voiced concern over the erosion on the Ba Be Lake banks during an interview with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

Ore exploitation, deforestation and uncontrolled construction have eroded lake banks at an alarming level. How can we save the lake?

A project to afforest and build stone river embankments to control the erosion of lake banks is being designed. Bac Kan Province shares the same point of view as Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat that the ecology of the lake's upper reaches must be restored. We should not continue to grow production forests where trees are chopped down and sold.

Haven't specialists already spent billions of dong researching dredging of Ba Be Lake?

Some believe it is very difficult to dredge the lake. They worry the noise of excavators and bulldozers would drive monkeys and other animals from the national park that borders Ba Be Lake.

The Geological Institute, which is helping Bac Kan Province prepare documents for UNESCO's recognition of Ba Be Lake as a world heritage, feel strongly that despite erosion, the lake will remain. Other scientists, meanwhile, warned that the lake would disappear in dozens of years'time. These differing views have not gotten us anywhere, but it is clear that it's feasible to restore the lake and its neighbouring area.

Have you heard complaints about the environmental destruction caused by ore exploitation that's eroding one on the lake's banks and forming land on another?

There is no ore exploitation in a 5km-10km radius of the lake, but there is an iron mine about 20km away. We have asked investors to do an environmental impact assessment. While exploitation certainly does impact the lake, it does not impact it directly.

Ore exploitation, which was licensed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment one year ago, also impacts the lake where its water is discharged, but nowhere else.

Is it true that the lake is under threat of being eliminated?

Everyone has a different point of view. But we should place public interests above personal ones and work together to protect the lake.

I would like to call everyone's attention to the historic 1986 flood when heavy rainfall brought garbage and forest trees to the lake. This caused one of the lake's banks to erode.

Japanese experts recently visited the lake and were surprised at how pure and green it was. We should not deny the contributions of people who are trying to protect and take care of the lake.

Do you think the provincial authorities need to re-examine the iron-ore exploitation to protect the lake?

It is being examined and its environmental impact is being assessed. They must ensure the pureness and sustainability of the environment if they want to exploit it.

We will examine whether exploiters have actually upheld their commitments to environmental protection. And if they have not, they will be punished.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News