The Xuan Huong Lake, a national beautiful landscape in Da Lat City - called the “dreamlike city of Vietnam” – has been found as seriously polluted. Though scientists have found out the reasons behind the pollution, they still cannot prescribe the lake.
The visitors to the flower city of Da Lat in Lam Dong province now feel depressed when seeing the Xuan Huong Lake full of bubbles, covered with thick pellicle which gives unpleasant smell.
“Beautiful landscape” turns into “tragic landscape”
In early February 2012, local residents and travelers witnessed unprecedented thing: the fish at the Xuan Huong Lake suddenly died in masses, running adrift into the Ong Dao bridge pier and the Thanh Thuy restaurant area.
The stink from decomposed fish bodies, plus the fishy smell algae both turned the Xuan Huong beautiful landscape into “tragic landscape” in the eyes of visitors.
A sanitation worker in charge of fishing out the rubbish on the Xuan Huong Lake, said that on sunny and windless days, algae decomposes in masses, rising to the surface and gathering in big layers of more than one centimeter.
Especially, decomposed algae gathers mostly in the area near the Ong Dao Bridge. He complained that when returning home after collecting rubbish on the lake, he usually suffers a headache and loses appetite because he has to sniff the terrible smell.
In fact, the reasons behind the pollution of Xuan Huong Lake were discovered many years ago. However, the local authorities have not found any measures to stop the pollution.
Dr Le Xuan Tham, Deputy Director of the Lam Dong provincial Department of Science and Technology, has affirmed that the Xuan Huong Lake has suffered the disease for the last 10 years. The provincial authorities have spent multi- billions of dong to hire scientists to prescribe the lake, but the remedies have not brought the desired effects.
Scientists, local authorities powerless?
Most recently, in early 2010, the provincial authorities decided to let the lake’s water out and change the water, re-build the embankment, expand the Ong Dao bridge in a project costing 100 billion dong.
In late 2010, local residents feel joyful when seeing the Xuan Huong Lake’s water turning blue again. However, just several months later, the blocks of algae appeared again on the lake surface, near the Ong Dao Bridge.
The scientists, who attended the workshop discussing the measures to settle the pollution at Xuan Huong Lake, held by the Lam Dong provincial authorities in early April, agreed that the waste from the Da Lat golf course has caused the development of algae and the terrible smell, thus badly affecting the beauty of the lake.
Dr Le Xuan Tham has pointed out that a big volume of chemicals used to protect the golf course grass, which cannot be dissolved, would follow the rain water to flow to the Xuan Huong Lake, thus creating favorable conditions for algae to grow.
Besides, a big volume of waste from agricultural production has also been flowing from the 2800 hectares of cultivation area to the lake, without any treatment. As a result, the romantic Xuan Huong Lake has become the place that receives waste from agricultural production.
It also receives the untreated waste water from local households, and from the animal slaughtering workshop on Phan Chu Trinh Street, just two kilometers far from the lake.
A report by the Da Lat Golf Club showed that 9087 kilos of fertilizer of different kinds, and hundreds of pesticide and other chemicals were used for the golf course in 2011.