Businesses in Hanoi's West Lake will be shut down for dredging and water quality improvement plans.
Entertainment businesses and restaurants, as well as fish farms, must be relocated from the lake. At first, the city must determine a relocation site to move all boats and equipment to. All boats and fish farms must be dismantled and relocated within the first quarter.
The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism was assigned to find partners to operate and maintain the Ho Tay Sports Training Centre nearby. The city authorities have also decided to build an 180-200 metre high fountain and an environmental monitoring system and have urgent plans to clean West Lake.
According to plan, West Lake and surrounding area will be transformed into a ‘modern tourist site’ with a treatment system that meets international standards.
200 tonnes of dead fish were recovered from West Lake in a mass fish death in 2016
In February, businesses must report to the city authorities their opening time at West Lake, the origins of the boats, the number of employees and difficulties they will encounter when forced to shut down the operation in West Lake and expectations for when the area is upgraded. The plan to build boats that meet international standards has been submitted for consideration.
In last October, over 200 tonnes of dead fish were recovered from West Lake. According to Hanoi People's Committee, changeable weather had lowered the level of dissolved oxygen in the water. Large numbers of people also keep throwing waste into the lakes. Unmanaged fish farming and other businesses on the lakes are also causing pollution.