The capital city is ready to protect its lakes.
Municipal People’s Committee chairman Nguyen The Thao has required the Construction Department to inventory all of the city’s lakes as a preparatory step to taking action against their degradation and disappearance.
He also told the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to take responsibility for lake’s water treatment and pollution reduction.
The Ha Noi Water Drainage Company was asked to make plans for a project aiming to improve the quality of about 60 lakes in nine old inner districts (excluding Ha Dong).
These moves have lifted hopes for those who love this special aspect of Ha Noi, which has long been known as "the city of lakes and rivers".
"I’m glad that municipal authorities have realised how important this natural treasure is, after losing so many waterways already," said Hanoian Tran Ha Binh.
Head of the Ha Noi Construction Department Do Xuan Anh said that the current 10 districts of the city had 116 lakes in total, of which 42 already had stone embankments and another 12 would get similar protection soon.
It sounds like a lot of lakes, but in reality, it used to be a lot more.
"Apparently, Ha Noi’s lakes have been considerably reduced in both quantitative and aerial terms", said Dr Pham Thuy Loan, vice director of the Urban and Architectural Institute.
Luu Thuy Duong, a resident in Dong Da District’s Trung Tu residential quarter, can still remember how big Xa Dan Lake, a favourite place of her childhood, used to be.
"It was once massive, almost three times as big as it is now. And it was much more beautiful than it is today, with lots of trees surrounding it," said Duong.
A lot of big houses and a few roads, including Ho Dac Di Street, were built up, filling in some parts of the lake.
A recent report by Professor Kelly Shannon of KU Leuven University, Belgium, indicated that Ha Noi (before it expanded) saw a 25 per cent drop in the total area of its lakes in just over a decade, between 1994 and 2005. And within half a century, from 1950 to 2000, the city had lost 70 per cent of its total number of lakes.
"The disappearance of lakes is ecological succession, or natural changes over time, because of the accumulation of soil and garbage mixed into the water running into the lakes from their surrounding basins," said Professor Mai Dinh Yen of the National University of Ha Noi. "But for Ha Noi’s lakes, that natural process has been sped up by humans."
The 2007 report of the Ha Noi comprehensive urban development programme, funded by the Japan International Co-operation Agency, showed that some lakes had been filled up for urban development, some illegally transgressed and many others deteriorating due to an influx of untreated waste water.
Before the mid-1990s, there were still a lot of lakes in Ha Noi, said Loan. But from about 1995 on, development pressures and a shortage of land had resulted in the massive filling up of lakes for urban development.
"Between 1995 and about 2005, hundreds of new urban area projects were launched. These projects were quite often located between Belt 2 and Belt 3, so a lot of agricultural areas with numerous lakes and ponds were filled in," said Loan.
She said that any city must maintain its natural surface water fund for drainage, ecological balance and what experts called "soft infrastructure".
For Professor Yen, Ha Noi must hold a strong attachment to its lakes.
"Ha Noi was formed on the Hong (Red) River Delta - a swamp land - so lakes and rivers in Ha Noi are natural and Ha Noi must be a city with that landscape in mind," he said.
The city couldn’t survive without lakes and rivers, not only because of the landscape, but also because of their crucial roles in regulating water flows, storing underground water, keeping the climate equable, dealing with pollution and maintaining biological diversity.
Scientific
"It’s true that Ha Noi is a city of lakes and rivers, but more importantly, there’s no Ha Noi without lakes and rivers," said Yen. "If we want to develop the capital on the right scientific, economic and cultural basis, we must let Ha Noi’s lakes play their proper roles."
He added that filling up lakes and pushing up ecological succession were human subjectivity. "Breaking the law of nature is no good."
Both the biologist and architect said that capital flooding was a direct result of losing some of its lakes.
"The flip side of losing lakes is obvious now in Ha Noi," said Loan.
Yen agreed, saying, "If Ha Noi had kept its original lakes, it would not have had such bad flooding."
The professor said that the filling up of lakes had also led to water pollution and the fast deterioration of once-abundant biological diversity.
Loan blamed the poor awareness of investors and inadequate management in the dark period of 1995-05 for these losses of the city’s treasures.
"It’s a simple fact that when an investor gets a piece of land, they have to make use of it. So they don’t want to keep the lakes. At that time, land was as expensive as gold," said Loan.
She explained that back then, investors didn’t realise how much dearer a piece of land would be if it was placed next to a lake.
But both Loan and Yen were optimistic that the awareness of the authorities towards the issue had changed things for the better. The necessity of protecting the city’s green treasures has been mentioned in a couple of important documents, including the third Ha Noi general construction master plan submitted to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung at the end of last year.
"Lakes and rivers are our most important resources, and the most unique things about Ha Noi," the plan stated.
Roisin Kisz, an Irish tourist, agreed. "What I love the most about your city is the lakes. They make Ha Noi so beautiful, so charming, so special.