Chairman of Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen The Thao has just directed the Department of Construction to check and make a list of lakes in the city in preparation for building stone-embankments and addressing lake encroachment; the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to take preside in treating lake water and reducing environmental pollution; the Hanoi Water Supply and Sanitation Co.Ltd to developing project to improve the quality of 57 lake in nine old inner-city districts which is funded by the World Bank.
According to Do Anh Xuan, Head of the Department of Construction, there are 116 lakes in the area of 10 Hanoi’s districts, of which 42 lakes have been built with stone-embankments and walk-around paths; 12 other lakes, in a move of the second stage of water supply & sanitation project, are planned being embanked. Among the lakes newly embanked, nine have already got sewage and rain-water treatment systems. The 62-unembanked lakes are now under the management of various administrative bodies with different purposes and being encroached and heavily polluted.
In August 2009, Mr. Thao also directed relevant Hanoi’s agencies to check the planning of all parks, lakes and trees in the city area, to assess the present situation of management, exploitation and usage in order to propose new planning, management and improvement mechanism. In the third quarter of 2009, the city’s leaders emphasized that administrative authorities of all districts should bear the responsibility for the encroachment of irrigation canals and lakes in the area. However, many lakes and ponds in the city were then continuously encroached due to inappropriate notice of the authorities.
It is said that in addition to lakes in the inner-city area, many others in the city’s outskirts should receive reasonable attention promptly; otherwise they would vanish in near future.
Translated by T.P (TITC)
Source: VietNamNet