Dead fish on Thien Quang Lake

Hanoi lakes have become severely polluted due to the dumping of thousands of cubic metres of sewage water from households and factories each day. The Centre for Environment and Community Research recently announced six lakes that have alarming pollution level including Linh Quang, Van Chuong, Kim Lien, Thien Quang , Ba Mau, Ao Phu.

Nguyen Duc Vuong, head of residential cluster 15, said people often dump rubbish by Dong Tac Bridge, over the Lu River because there isn’t anywhere else to put household waste. "The authorities in Dong Da District agreed to let people dump rubbish there. However, it is collected pretty slowly, the bride is only cleared about once a week," he said.

A research by the centre at 120 lakes and ponds in Hanoi in 2010 revealed that 71% of the lakes in Hanoi were seriously polluted. As rubbish keeps getting dumped into the lakes and people continue to build onto their surface area, many lakes in Hanoi may disappear.

The authorities have tried to dredge mud and grow rafts of anti-pollutant plants on affected lakes but the situation has not improved much due to large amount of daily sewage.

About 650,000 cubic metres of wastewater is discharged into the river system each day. However, the capital only has three waste treatment plants with total capacity of 206,000 cubic metres a day. The Institute for Water Supply, Sewerage and Environment warned that Hanoi's underground water sources are being heavily polluted.