VietNamNet Bridge – The famous tourist sites in Da Lat City of Lam Dong province have got more seriously polluted. Local residents fear that rubbish would “spoil Da Lat,” and the city would no longer be a romantic city in the eyes of travelers.

It was late in the afternoon of August 19, but Tai, a worker of the Da Lat Tourist City, still had to expose himself to the rain to fish out the rubbish at the Cam Ly waterfall. A self-modified instrument which looked like a farmers’ mussel picking tool was used by the two workers to collect rubbish.

Tai said he and his colleagues had to do this work twice a day. About one ton of rubbish can be fished out from the waterfall every day, mostly agriculture and domestic waste.

However, Tai admitted that the workers cannot pick up all the rubbish. “We always have to wear protective masks to prevent the bad odor,” he complained.

Cam Ly waterfall has attracted billions of visitors over the last hundreds of years with its charm and beauty. The waterfall flows gently through granite rocks and it looks like the hair of a beautiful girl.

However, the marvelous landscape now cannot attract many tourists any more. The pollution here has been keeping tourists away. Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc, Deputy Director of the Lam Dong provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said the serious pollution will not be settled unless the people in the upper stream area stop throwing rubbish.

According to Ngoc, the provincial authorities have joined forces with a university in HCM City to conduct a research work to settle the pollution at the Cam Ly Waterfall. However, the project remains on paper.

The Dan Kia – Suoi Vang Lake, another wonderful tourist site has also been polluted over the last many years. The lake has been described as the frame of a wonderful picture -  the famous Thung Lung Vang (Golden Valley) landscape. It provides 70 percent of water to the 250,000 people in Da Lat City and Lac Duong district.

Nguyen Van Dung from the Nuoc Suoi Vang Water Supply Plant, pointing to the rubbish on the water surface, said the pollution seemingly gets eased in the dry season. However, when it rains heavily, the water would flow to the lake, bringing rubbish.

On the water surface and the side of the 4 kilometer stream which provides water to the Dan Kia Lake, one could see a lot of pesticides bottles, buffalo bones and the garbage from the agriculture production areas in the upper course.

A worker said when it rains heavily, 10 workers would have to row boats to fish out rubbish, and the work would only be done after half a day.

“Rubbish has been flowing there since 2008. Despite our effort to change the flow of the stream, rubbish still has been flowing to the lake,” he said.

The Analysis Center under the Da Lat Nuclear Research Institute and the Preventive Medicine Center usually have to send staff to the lake to take water samples for testing. However, the testing only can help discover the risks. If the rubbish source cannot be eliminated, the water will get polluted, sooner or later.

NLD