Ha Long Bay, more than 1,500 sq m, is a unique attraction. It welcomes thousands of visitors each day and provides a livelihood for many fishermen.

Receiving a high number of visitors, Ha Long also receives tons of waste each day. Waste drifts into the bay together with sea current.

The cleaners at Ha Long Bay are called the ‘warriors that protect the greenery’ for the World Heritage Site bay.

At 7am, after having a wash, Nguyen Thi Dung, residing in Hung Thang ward in Ha Long City, and her husband get ready to drive a wooden boat and pick up waste from the water surface.

On the way to the areas where they work, Dung and her husband take time to have breakfast. No one thinks the woman is 48 years old, because her face has become weather beaten after many years of working on the sea.

Dung and her husband are workers at Quang Ninh Park Construction Jsc, in charge of collecting waste in the areas of Trinh Nu Cave, Trong Cave and near Titov Island.

The area is called the ‘garbage hub’ because it is the starting point of the sea current that drifts waste from the sea to the bay. Also, as the bay receives a high number of visitors every day, the volume of waste discharged is huge.

Dung, who has been doing this work for five years, was preparing for a working day by putting on working clothes and holding tools to pick up trash from the water surface.

When standing on the wooden boat, one can see trash covering the water. The trash piles up after every rain.

When reaching the area near Titov beach, Dung signaled to her husband to dock at a limestone mountain to collect trash. When traveling around the area, Dung quickly picked up floating styrofoam and plastic bottles.

"This is the area where the most trash is gathered, because tides rise and fall causing trash to float and get stuck at the foot of the mountain,” she explained.

Collecting trash is a hard job, and on the sea surface it is even harder. Dung said she has to be on the sea all day long and if she cannot stand steady on her feet, she falls into the water.

When the boat is laden with waste, Dung and other co-workers begin classifying waste. The waste will be collected and carried away by big ships.

Ngoc Ha