A HCM City citizen, Mai Trong Tuan, has introduced a striking initiative: cooling cities in Vietnam with cold air from mountainous regions.

In the future, Sapa’s air may be used to cool down Hanoi.

This idea flashed to him many years ago and Tuan told the idea to Professor Tran Phuong, former vice chairman of the Council of Ministers (equivalent to Deputy Prime Minister) and Prof. Dr. le Van Vien at a meeting in May 2002.

This “unrealistic” idea was immediately supported by Phuong and Vien. One day later, Dr. Academician Dang Huu, former Party Secretary and the chief of the Central Party Committee’s Science and Education Department, asked Nhan Dan newspaper to publish this idea for the consideration of other scientists. The Copyright Agency granted a copyright certificate to Tuan after that.

Tuan said that in the summer, the air at the lowest places in Vietnam is 32oC upwards. Meanwhile, the air in mountainous areas like Sapa, Tam Dao, Ba Vi, Ngoc Linh and Da Lat is cool all the year round, at around 20oC.

Tuan suggested installing pipes to take cool air from these places to cool down cities and deltas. “The huge amount of cool air is being wasted while people have to use air conditioners to cool the air,” Tuan said.

According to Tuan’s calculation, investment to take cool air from mountainous areas to cities would be much cheaper than investing in air conditioners and the cost of electricity. In addition, this method could help restrict environmental pollution.

The central province of Thua Thien – Hue city authorities several years ago invited Tuan to do research into cooling down Hue city with cool air from Bach Ma mount.

According to Tuan’s research, with investment of 1 billion dong for 2.6km of 20-30cm-diameter plastic pipes and some big-sized fans, he can bring cool air from Bach Ma mount to cool one school and one hospital in Hue city.

Tuan said that he is seeking investors for this project and also keeping himself free to implement it in 2010.

Some countries have made artificial rains, so perhaps this idea is not as strange as it sounds.

VietNamNet/CAND