The role of the community in Hanoi’s Lakes protection

Activities of the community in the protection of Hanoi’s Lakes
Environmental pollution in the lakes of Hanoi is a new problem and is not easily resolved. The problem lies in the general condition of surface water pollution in our country. According to the National Environmental Report 2012, many rivers, lakes and canals were turning into containers of untreated domestic and industrial waste… In particular, the water quality of lakes in the inner area of some large cities have been contaminated with organic substances. Hanoi’s lakes with most of the parameters exceed QCVN 08: 2008/BTNMT type B2. The water in many ponds and lakes are heavily polluted and depleted during the dry season, causing harm to the environment, urban landscapes and affecting people’s health.
These years, Hanoi has attempted to invest and conducted several measures to improve the environment of lakes, the water quality as well as the landscape. In these efforts, the participation of the community, with the core pioneer are Center for Environment and Community Research (CECR), Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations, the Women’s Union of wards and Hanoi Lake Club with practice initiatives, has promoted community involvement in lakes protection.

In the last 3 years, notably activities are the Women’s Union of Hoang Van Thu ward in the protection of Den Lu Lake, Women’s Union of Quang An Ward in the protection of Pho Linh pagoda pond, Cheo pond, Women’s Union of Ngoc Khanh Ward in the protection of Ngoc Khanh Lake, thereby, contribute to raising awareness of the community about protecting Hanoi lakes.
In the framework of the activities of Hanoi Lake Club, initiated and sponsored by CECR and the Urban Institute, Vietnam Urban Forum, an online newsletter about Hanoi lakes (once every 2 months) has been shared to all members. This connection means has bound and kept a spark in club members. The club also organizes a monthly trash  picking event at Bay Mau Lake, attracted many participants. By 2014, the club has received the involvement of a number of businesses, clubs university students, the patronage of the Directorate of Environment and Environmental Protection Branch of Hanoi. The club is also the nuclear organizer of Earth Day “Join hands to preserve Hanoi’s lakes” with the participation of organizations and university students, music stars, the media…
Besides, CECR has organized many training courses for the community at the lakes and helped Women’s Union build a long-term plan to implement the above activities. The parties are hoping these events and activities to protect lakes in Hanoi will contribute to the construction of a new behavior to the environment, promote encouragement of the community participation and create a new culture for Vietnam (environment culture).
The difficulties and shortcomings
The shortcomings of the current function of Hanoi’s lakes: The lake in Hanoi whose primary function is to regulate rainwater, drainage, environmental functions, to create smaller lungs for urban and landscape function for community entertainment. However, most of the lakes in Hanoi have drainage function, means that sewage is discharged directly into the lake. Many lakes have economic function, these lakes continue being used for fish farming or vegetable planting. These functions are historical, they were born since Hanoi was still a small capital. With the fact that Hanoi has become a modern capital, raising fish and growing vegetables, particularly the drainage function become obsolete and is the cause of degraded lakes. Environmental functions such as air conditioning, stormwater and landscape conditioning do not ensure efficiency.
Shortcomings in the management of water quality and lakeside corridor: The management of the lake has been decentralized to the People’s Committees of districts that have lakes. However, Decision No. 11/2011/QD-UBND does not clearly define the sector included in the management function. This causes difficulties in the implementation of management and defining the responsibilities of the involved parties. So far, only the management of West Lake overcome this difficulty because the People’s Committee of Hanoi has a separate decision on the management of the West Lake.
Currently, each lake usually has 3 main management units: the Water supply and Drainage Company manages the lakes water and reservoir bed, the Green Park Trees Company manages the corridor shore, the Urban Environment Company is responsible for the hygiene around the shore. These companies are working through contract assigned by the Department of Construction, directly under district or ward depending on the hierarchy of each lake. The management work of each unit is done isolative, passively, depends on the consciousness of the people and the surrounding community.

Many of the city decisions were issued but not yet effectively implemented: The gaps in the function and objective of the ponds and lakes with the from-top-to-bottom administration manner lead to gaps in policy implementation, and faced with the shortcomings are the direct staff who implement the documents. For example, Section 3, Article 7, Decision No.2249/ QD-UBND states that “strictly prohibit fish farming business in conditional lakes in the area of urban districts”, however, fish farming is maintained at large lakes like Xa Dan, Thanh Nhan, Den Lu Lake…Fish farming has impacted directly by the Drainage Company treatment work and maintenance of the water quality. Whereas, permission for fish farming units to use the lake are given by the Committee to that lake.
A number of recommendations to promote community participation in the protection of Hanoi lakes
With regard to policymaking, Hanoi needs to change the function of the lakes (removal of the drainage function and aquacultural function); to have specific sanctions for the violation of regulations on lake protection; to build a community support fund for initiatives promotion. In addition, the Environmental Protection Fund Hanoi should have a fund which is accessible for Women’s Union, scientific and technical organizations. There needs to be a strategic plan to use the fund to achieve specific results and solve problems, encourage creativity, community involvement.