LookAtVietnam – While Bay Mau Lake inside Thong Nhat park has been a destination of relax for people in the south of Ha Noi for more than half a century, the nearby Ba Mau lake, has become severely polluted, said Ha Dinh Duc,

Local residents will welcome moves to clean-up Ba Mau lake.

More than 30 years later, municipal authorities made plans to transform Ba Mau park. The project was expected to be completed in 1992 to provide locals with something similar to Thong Nhat park; however, pollution has now taken its toll on the body of water.

Nineteen years ago, Ba Mau park was designed on an area of nearly 10ha in Phuong Lien and Trung Phung wards, with a stone-paved lake, surrounded by green trees and a 5,800m-around road.

However, the project was still incomplete, and the lake was polluted with rubbish and construction materials, and the road around the lake was in bad condition, flooded with contaminated water.

Resident Ngo Huu Duyen was just a guard in the ward in 1990 when the project started, but now he is president of the ward association for veterans, and the lake is still not finished.

Duyen said that the delay was from a lack of capital. He also said that most residents were eagerly awaiting its finish.

Duyen explained that some of the locals that disagreed were those illegally living on the land and destroying the lake with their trash.

Resident Nguyen Duc That said “the lake is dying fast, and it has a terrible smell”.

That said that the delayed project had prevented locals from repairing their houses, as they were uncertain of the lake’s future.

That said that “if we want to sell our houses, we won’t get a good price because no one wants to live in a polluted area”.

According to the current investor of the project, the Ha Noi Construction Department, the problem was the disagreement of 145 households, all of which must move for the project to be completed.

The Department of Construction had replaced the Department of Transport and Public Works, which had carried out the project for 17 years without progress.

Nguyen Xuan Truong, an official from the Ha Noi Department of Construction, said that the city had agreed to give each household a lot of land ranging from 40 to 70sq.m in the district. But many households were not satisfied with this.

“After all the site clearing is finished, we can do our work in two to three months,” said the official.

Last Thursday, the department and Dong Da district authorities agreed that they would carry out the forced site clearance to speed up the project and bring back the fresh lake to local residents.

Truong said that they would soon create an embankment around the lake first.

Resident That said, “I hope their efforts are implemented in their work, not their words like the previous investor.”

According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Ha Noi currently has more than 50 lakes. Thirty of them need an environment treatment or they will die.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News