VietNamNet Bridge – A lot of the beautiful landscapes which have been advertised as the “paradises” for tourists, in fact, are the “paradises of rubbish.”

The stream goes through many residential quarters in the central area of the city and receives the rubbish from the people living there

Located in the famous tourist city of Da Lat, the Cam Ly Waterfall, a dreamlike beautiful landscape is getting polluted more seriously.

According to Ta Hoang Giang, Director of the Da Lat Tourism Service JSC, the developer of the Cam Ly waterfall, the stream goes through many residential quarters in the central area of the city and receives the rubbish from the people living there.

Garbage, waste water has been discharged to the stream uncontrollably, which has made the stream pitch-dark. The company’s workers have to clear the rubbish every day, dredge the stream, and install plastics pipes to prevent rubbish. However, Giang admitted that these are just temporary measures which cannot help settle the problem to the every root.

“The big sum of money spent to deal with the pollution has come to nothing because it’s not enough to treat the seriously polluted water source,” he complained.

The Xuan Huong Lake, a wonderful landscape, has reportedly been “poisoned” with algae, which gives bad odor. The water from the lake has made the Cam Ly waterfall fall sick.

The Than Tho Lake has also suffered the same problem. The serious pollution has made the romantic landscape less valuable in the eyes of tourists. The lake now looks like a fish pond with wild grass, duckweed and rubbish around.

Experts said the lake has been poisoned by the agriculture production area nearby, where there are vegetable gardens and grass houses. The cultivation here has discharged the plant protection chemicals and the agriculture refuses which then absorb into the earth, the underground water sources, or go together with the rainwater to go to the lake.

Mui Ne beach in Phan Thiet province is also facing the big problems caused by the pollution. The “culprits” here are the mini resorts and accommodation systems which do not care about the measures to protect the environment. The waste water from the resorts has been discharging directly to the sea without any treatment. Meanwhile, no one takes the responsibility of controlling the resorts.

An officer of the Binh Thuan province Environment Police Station said that in general, resort developers don’t want to spend money on the waste water treatment systems. Many resorts don’t have such systems; others have tiny ones which never operate unless the resorts receive inspectors.

Tran Van Binh, Deputy Chair of the Binh Thuan Tourism Association, said travel firms have to spend their own money to collect many tons of rubbish in the coastal areas.

“We do this for the sake of the national tourism brand of Mui Ne. The tourism paradise must not be full of rubbish,” he said.

A report of the Quang Ninh provincial tourism department showed that every 40 out of the 100 European tourists to Vietnam visited the Ha Long Bay in 2012. Since there are not many original tourism activities ashore, travelers spent most of their time on the bay surface and the limestone caves on the sea.

The pollution has also been caused by the ships which carry coal to the bigger ships. The cement plants nearby have also discharges smoke and dust.

Nguoi Dua Tin