Don't treat the lake badly.

TRASH, SMELLY...

We comeNorth Canal Lakealong the new 35m road connecting National Highway 46 with the Lam River road. Initial impression, probably because it has just been invested in and built, the Kenh Bac regulating lake with full infrastructure of management road, sidewalk, grass, trees, lighting... will be beautiful, clean and airy and fresh.

But that feeling gradually faded away as we walked through the 53-hectare area of ​​the lake. From the end point connecting with Rao Dung Canal to the beginning point connecting with Bac Canal, there was no place in the regulating lake that was not covered with trash. Trash was on the surface of the surrounding roads, sidewalks, and lawns. Trash was on the vacant lots around the 53-hectare area. Trash was on the 40-hectare surface of the lake.

On the lake surface, there is not only trash but also the carcasses of giant animals. Photo: Nhat Lan

As for the diversity of garbage, it is difficult to calculate accurately and completely. It is a mixture of construction waste. It is bagasse, fruit peels from night stalls. It is boxes, plastic bags and leftover food and drinks from groups of people who have the same hobby of eating, drinking and watching the stars at night. It is grass, duckweed, garbage "salvaged" from the lake. But the most frightening are the animals "let" float in the lake. There are some that are up to a meter long, floating on the water surface... From the surface of the water that has turned black, from the animals in the process of transformation, a terrible stench is emitted...

"It seems like there is indifference and apathy towards this project worth hundreds of billions of dong..."

The North Canal Reservoir was completed not long ago, but it seems to lack management and care. Therefore, all kinds of bushes and weeds have grown on the lawns, on the sidewalks, and even on the border between the road and the concrete strip of the sidewalk. In some places, grass and bushes have completely covered the sidewalks, becoming garbage dumps. And there are quite a few “strange” objects lying haphazardly on the sidewalks, lawns, or “entwined” with trees, which need care to stay healthy and provide shade for the lake complex. Such as tables, chairs, iron frames..., which must be night-time selling tools of makeshift stalls, when they are off, they use ropes to tie them, or use locks to lock them to the tree trunks...

Joining us in “admiring” the Kenh Bac regulating lake were a few friends. Perhaps they were also surprised by the scenery here, so they commented: “It seems like there is indifference and insensitivity towards this project worth hundreds of billions of dong...”.

Around the management road, construction waste is everywhere. Photo: Nhat Lan

FIX MANAGEMENT ERROR

Feeling sorry for the current situation of Kenh Bac regulating lake, we contacted the leaders of Vinh City People's Committee. Then we learned that Kenh Bac regulating lake has a process for managing and operating the project items; at the same time, the city has also assigned responsibility to the direct management unit, Vinh Urban Infrastructure Management and Development Joint Stock Company, to strictly implement the management and operation.

The process of managing and operating the items of the North Canal regulating lake project was issued by the Vinh City People's Committee in Decision No. 3815/QD-UBND, dated July 14, 2020. In particular, the process of maintaining environmental sanitation is stipulated as follows: Regularly implemented once every 10 days; in emergency cases when directed by the City People's Committee or there are unusual signs that may cause environmental pollution: once every day. Regarding practical operations, requirements: Use boats and other means, use rakes and tools; scoop up duckweed, trash and floating objects on the lake surface; lift the sluice gates into and out of the lake, and take them for treatment. Use bamboo, meters or floating buoys at the sluice gates, discharge gates, and along the embankment to facilitate the collection of duckweed, floating trash and reduce the working area. Pick up trash, grass, trees, and animals on the lake roof, management road, and sidewalk of the management road; Use rakes and nets to scoop up duckweed and trash around the sewers and put them in the collection vehicle (garbage here includes household waste, natural waste and construction waste piles equal to or less than 0.2m).³. Regarding quality, requirements: On the lake roof, the water surface must be free of duckweed, trash, and waste; the sluice gates must be clean of trash and flow freely; all collected trash and waste must be transported to the designated place within the day.

Boxes, plastic bags, and leftover food and drinks are also everywhere on the grass and embankments. Photo: Nhat Lan

"When we ask, the operations manager always reports that they are doing it as required. Doing it like this is going to be a disaster..."

Comparing the above regulations, we have stated the reality.garbage, grass, pollution in the North Canal regulating laketo ask Vinh Urban Infrastructure Management and Development Joint Stock Company. With the images recorded on April 23, 2021, the leader of this unit proactively took responsibility. Because as this leader said, after Decision No. 3815/QD-UBND of Vinh City People's Committee, the Company arranged human resources to carry out management and operation work. "But when we asked, the management and operation staff always reported that they were performing according to requirements. Doing it like this is a dead end..." - said the representative. At the same time, he contacted a person named Ngoc, requesting an urgent inspection and immediate handling of the existing problems...

Although Vinh Urban Infrastructure Management and Development Joint Stock Company takes responsibility, the current situation of Kenh Bac regulating lake partly belongs to the roles and responsibilities of related departments, offices and units in Vinh city and the People's Committees of Hung Loc and Hung Hoa communes. In order for Kenh Bac regulating lake to be well cared for and protected, thereby exploiting all its functions, in Decision No. 3815/QD-UBND, Vinh City People's Committee not only assigns responsibility to the management and operation unit. Specifically, with the People's Committees of Hung Loc and Hung Hoa communes, it is necessary to "Organize inspections and strictly handle violations that affect environmental sanitation and technical infrastructure works in the area...". Or with Vinh City Green Park Joint Stock Company, it is responsible for taking care of trees and lawns. Letting littering happen, or trees being locked with "foreign objects"..., clearly has a part of their responsibility!

Objects of makeshift shops locked with trees. Photo: Nhat Lan

INCREASING COMMUNITY AWARENESS

In the area of ​​the Kenh Bac regulating lake, a rare bright spot is the billboards whose content and images are associated with calling on the community to join hands to protect the environment.

Learned, the signs with very good content such as "Garbage is our own hands. Disposing of it properly is civilized" were made by a group of volunteers. These people, when seeing that the regulating lake brings immeasurable good values ​​to the community, but there is a group that is indifferent to environmental protection, is the direct agent of waste discharge, so they joined in. They called for the creation of slogans and drawings with content about environmental protection but close, easy to touch people's hearts; voluntarily contributed money together to print, frame, and hang in easy-to-observe locations. Through that, hopefully, they will call on the community to join hands to protect the regulating lake environment with specific actions. That is not to discharge waste into the regulating lake and surrounding infrastructure.

Reading the content of the slogans, we see that the target audience of these volunteers is really right. Because the “culprit” of all kinds of construction waste, sugarcane bagasse, fruit peels, boxes, plastic bags, leftover food and drinks, dead animals floating in the lake…, is none other than a part of the population that lacks awareness of living in Vinh city.

Signs calling on the community to join hands to protect the environment in the lake area. Photo: Nhat Lan

The unit assigned to manage and operate the reservoir will have to correct the errors; the relevant departments, offices, units and the authorities of the two communes of Hung Loc and Hung Hoa will have to take more active action. But that is still not enough. Because if there are still individuals in the community who lack awareness and are still "heartless and insensitive", the landscape of the Kenh Bac reservoir will continue to be negatively affected, and thus, it will be very difficult to end the environmental pollution./.