VietNamNet Bridge - The loading and unloading of bulk commodities which can cause environmental pollution, such as cement, clinker and woodchips, have resumed on the Ha Long Bay despite the ban in 2012.

The Quang Ninh provincial People’s Committee, in an effort to protect the environment and landscapes of the Ha Long Bay, one of the world’s natural wonders, in October 2012 decided to stop all activities of loading and unloading clinker, cement and other types of bulk commodities on the bay.

The loading and unloading of the commodities must be carried out on Hon Net in Cam Pha City.

However, local reporters caught a lot of ships docking in the areas near Titov Island for clinker and cement to be handled. Giant buckets were seen scooping clinker and cement, then dropping to the freighters around, kicking thick dust in front of travelers who were sight-seeing. Some workers were seen dropping litter on the bay sometimes.

After the pictures about ships and goods handling were posted on local newspapers, the Quang Ninh provincial authorities requested appropriate agencies to check the information. However, inspectors did not discover anything on the site. Some even doubted that reporters re-published the pictures they took in 2012.

The loading and unloading of bulk commodities which can cause environmental pollution, such as cement, clinker and woodchips, have resumed on the Ha Long Bay despite the ban in 2012.

According to Nguyen Cong Thai, deputy chair of the Ha Long Bay Board of Management, inspectors examined six vessels and found one vessel carrying bulk commodities. However, the commodities had not been unloaded by the time of examination because it was raining.

Also according to Thai, in 2015, appropriate agencies discovered 400 cases of boats violating the regulations, including boats that loaded and unloaded polluting goods.

This means that the vessels local reporters discovered as violating the regulations in February 2016 were not the only one, though the bay is now put under strict control by different management agencies.

Sources said that ship owners still prefer docking at Ha Long Bay for goods handling because they don’t want to go to Hon Net, which will cost them more money.

Environmentalists, local people and travel firms all have called on to prohibit to load and unload all kinds of goods, not only bulk commodities, on the Ha Long Bay in order to better protect Ha Long’s environment and landscapes.

“It is obvious that the noisy goods loading and unloading on the sea has been causing pollution and disfigured Ha Long’s landscapes in travelers’ eyes,” said the owner of a tourist boat.

However, Hoang Xuan Tung, head of the legal department of the Quang Ninh Port Authorities, said if the loading and unloading of all kinds of goods on the bay are prohibited, ships won’t know where they should go to as the Cai Lan Port has become overloaded.

Lao Dong