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| Hạ Long Bay Management Board workers collect rubbish on the bay, as part of efforts to limit pollution. – VNA/VNS Photo Nguyễn Đán |
Viet Nam News
QUẢNG NINH — Environmental protection in Hạ Long Bay, in the northern province of Quảng Ninh, remains difficult as large amounts of rubbish are generated by tourists and rubbish collection activitiy is not effective, according to local authorities.
Observations by a Tiền Phong (Vanguard) newspaper correspondent revealed that one of Hạ Long City’s most beautiful roads which runs along the seashore from the Bãi Cháy Road to Hồng Hà Ward, always hosts different rubbish dumps. The rubbish smells bad when the tide ebbs. And rubbish drifts when the tide rises.
Nguyễn Đức Ba, a resident of Bạch Đằng Ward, said he sometimes sees a team aboard a ship collecting drifting rubbish floating in the sea. But no one collects rubbish on the shore.
Vũ Thị Lan, a visitor from the central city of Đà Nẵng, came to Hạ Long Bay for the first time. She felt uncomfortable seeing rubbish everywhere.
Nguyễn Công Thái, deputy director of the Hạ Long Bay Management Board, told Quảng Ninh Newspaper that protecting the environment of the bay is very difficult. The most difficult problem is the shortage of workers, tools and ships to collect the rubbish.
To improve the polluted conditions, the management board recently set up teams to collect rubbish along the seashore and transport it inland. The board regularly offered education on protecting the environment to visitors and local residents. The board also gave rubbish bins to residents living in fishing villages on the bay and assigned ships to take the rubbish to the mainland for treatment weekly.
Next time, concerned wards will be assigned to manage and collect rubbish along the seashore in their areas, to tighten management on the issue.
“To protect Hạ Long Bay, community responsibility is very important, in addition to management board responsibility,” said Thái.
Every year Hạ Long Bay receives nearly three million visitors. The provincial People’s Committee spends more than VNĐ3 billion (US$133,300) per year from the Hạ Long Bay tourism fund to collect and treat rubbish, according to the committee. — VNS
