VietNamNet Bridge – Only several stunted saplings have been seen on the newly opened roads in Hanoi. While the natural area of Hanoi has increased by four folds, the greenery area has not increased accordingly.

According to the Hanoi Greenery Park Company, which is in charge of managing the greenery in 9 inner districts of Hanoi, the city now has some 45,000 trees, but mostly located in the four districts of Ba Dinh, Hoan Kiem, Hai Ba Trung and Dong Da. Meanwhile, there are very few trees grown in other districts, or there are only saplings, which means that the localities could not be recognized as “green urban areas.”

Hanoi authorities, when realizing the problem, gathered a meeting in late November 2012 to discuss the programming of the park and greenery system. Hanoi Mayor Nguyen The Thao admitted that despite the big budget allocated to the greenery development, the water surface and greenery rate in Hanoi, especially in the core urban areas remains very low.

In fact, the greenery development has been mentioned in all the city’s development programs. However, the questions who will implement the greenery development plan and how to implement the plan remain unanswered.

The nine districts in the inner city are considered the “green areas” of Hanoi. However, problems still exist there. The population density is overly high in some of the districts with the area per capita at 26-31 square meters. Experts say it’s really difficult to arrange the accommodations and traveling in such conditions, let alone the plantation of more trees.

Do Ngoc Hoang, Director of the Hanoi Greenery Park Company, said it’s very difficult to design the greenery system, once the pavements of the newly set up routes are too narrow.

The pavements, which are considered the public areas, have been used by people who set up restaurants and shops to earn their living. Meanwhile, the interlacing electricity and telecommunication wire systems make it impossible to grow trees.

Under the current regulations, the share trees grown under the wire systems must have their branches pruned off every year, because of which trees become twisted or suffer from insects, unable to grow up.

Since the plants on the pavement do not have large space to grow, they cannot grow in a natural way and can fall down easily in big storms. Meanwhile, the roads and the sidewalks have been dug regularly to serve underground works, which influence the plants’ growth and sustainability.

Developing the green infrastructure

Hoang from the Hanoi Greenery Park said that “making Hanoi green” does not simply means “planting trees,” and that the process cannot be implemented overnight.

Not all kinds of trees can be planted on the streets of Hanoi. The trees to be grown on the streets must meet the requirements for urban trees.

Urban trees are not industrial trees, therefore, which cannot bring profits to the developers. Meanwhile, it’ll take at least 8-12 years to develop a sapling and plant it on the streets.

It is estimated that Hanoi would need millions of new plants to grow on the new urban areas and newly opened routes. In order to have enough plants to grow, Hanoi would need a nursery garden with an area of tens of hectares.

ANTD