HÀ NỘI – Sanitation workers have started collecting garbage and cleaning an area of West Lake where a number of floating restaurants and piers were recently dismantled, the Tây Hồ District People’s Committee said.

The move came after many recent media reports revealed that part of the capital’s famous lake is flooded with garbage and mud, two weeks after the dismantlement of floating restaurants and piers began.

According to a Vietnam News Agency reporter, dozens of sanitation workers and garbage trucks from Sao Mai Environmental and Ecological Joint Stock Company were mobilised Tuesday morning to remove garbage from the lake’s waters and bank. After being collected, garbage was immediately transported to another location.

As of 11.30am, the waters near the bank and the pavement area from house No 2 to No 10 in Nguyễn Đình Thi Street were cleared of garbage. 

On February 23, Tây Hồ District authorities started to dismantle and demolish all structures built onto the lake in an attempt to tackle the worsening pollution situation.

As the work was still going on, large amounts of garbage, refuse and swamp water were uncovered after the dismantlement.

Local residents complained about the unbearable odour that began to arise after the structures were removed.

 “The smell is ugly. The swamp water is very dirty. This is the result of uncontrolled littering by boats and floating restaurants in the lake for a long time,” Ngô Anh Đức, a resident in Bưởi Ward told  An ninh Thủ đô (Capital’s Security) newspaper on Monday.

There were six businesses operating permanent structures on the lake without approval from local authorities.

Nguyễn Anh Tuấn, deputy head of West Lake Management Board, said on Monday that the dismantling work was expected to be completed in the next few days.

He said after the removal work is finished, the Department of Construction would be in charge of dredging the lake, as upon the request by the city authority. Meanwhile, Tây Hồ District’s authority would order related agencies to collect natural garbage like duckweed floating on the lake’s surface.

All business operations and fish breeding and aquaculture activities in the lake would be completely halted by the end of the first quarter of this year, he said. – VNS