VietNamNet Bridge - The lakes in Hanoi are considered the lungs of the city, but many of them have become seriously polluted.

Linh Quang Lake in Dong Da district

Linh Quang Lake in Dong Da district is believed to be the most seriously polluted lake in the city.

The water of the lake has turned black, while the surface is covered with hyacinth, weeds and domestic waste discharged by locals. 

For many years, the lake has been serving as a place for locals to raise poultry and fish. Meanwhile, the lake’s area has become narrower because locals have gradually encroached upon it.

In 2004, the Hanoi People’s Committee approved a project on improving the Linh Quang Lake with the budget of VND131 billion. However, the project still has not been implemented.

The lakes in Hanoi are considered the lungs of the city, but many of them have become seriously polluted.

Van Chuong Lake, just several hundreds of meters away from Linh Quang, covering an area of 1.3 hectares, is also getting polluted as it has to receive waste water from the local households and trade activities on the lakeside.

A local woman said that summer was the most terrible time for local people, when the scorching sun makes the bad odor from the lake unbearable. 

Le Viet Linh from Van Chuong Ward said that the lake had lost the ability of cleaning itself because it has to receive too much waste from different sources, from scrap material shops, livestock barns and domestic waste.

Covering an area of 5.6 hectares, Thien Quang Lake in Hai Ba Trung district is one of the biggest lakes in Hanoi which serves water conditioning and landscaping. 

The beautiful lake, after many years of receiving waste water from the drainage water system and restaurants on the lakeside, is also getting polluted. Mass fish deaths have occurred there in summer. 

The Ba Mau Lake in Thong Nhat Park, which is a beautiful landscape for people to visit, has also become polluted because young people, when visiting it and having meals at the restaurants on the lakeside, drop litter every day. 

A local man commented that the lake has even become a public toilet.

Local residents are concerned about Ngoc Khanh Lake, though it has been improved in a project capitalized at VND20 billion.

Bui Thu Quy, a local woman, said she could not understand why the lake has become worse after being improved. 

The situation has become so serious that the cafes and restaurants nearby on Pham Huy Thong street, which were very crowded in the past, have become deserted recently.

A report from CECR (the Center for Environment and Community Research) shows that by the end of 2015, Hanoi had 112 lakes and ponds with total surface area of 6,969,305 square meters.


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