Unesco World Heritage completely dirty: ‘I remove waste from the bay without a break’

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On this hot morning, Vu Thi Thinh, 50, perches on the edge of her small boat in Vietnam’s picturesque Halong Bay and retrieves a Styrofoam pack from the calm waters.

Islands of Styrofoam buoys, plastic bottles and beer cans float around the Garbage Man through the Unesco World Heritage Site, famous for its turquoise-water beaches and rainforest-covered islands. Due to such plastic waste here and in many other regions of the world, an international agreement is being negotiated in Paris until Friday.

“I’m very tired,” says 50-year-old Thinh, who has worked as a garbage man for ten years. “Day in and day out – without a break – I collect trash from the bay.” According to the Halong Bay government, 10,000 cubic meters of waste have been collected since the beginning of March – about the same amount as four Olympic-sized swimming pools can fit.

Seven million visitors in one year

The waste problem has worsened in recent months. Attempts to replace fish farm Styrofoam buoys with sustainable models have failed, and fishermen keep throwing their discarded Styrofoam buoys into the water.

Authorities have deployed 20 ships, eight boats and dozens of people to clean up the bay, state media said. Do Tien Thanh of the competent authority called the buoys a short-term problem, but admitted Ha Long Bay was “at risk”.

Seven million visitors in 2022 visited the spectacular limestone formations of the bay on Vietnam’s northeast coast. The authorities hope for 8.5 million tourists this year. But the popularity of the area and the rapid growth of Ha Long City have put a lot of pressure on the ecosystem.

Some dolphins even came back

The city now has a cable car, an amusement park, luxury hotels and thousands of new homes. Conservationists estimate that while there used to be 234 species of coral in the bay, there are now half of them.

In the past decade, the corals had recovered somewhat and some dolphins had returned to the bay after fishing was banned in large parts of the World Heritage Site. But plastic waste and human waste are still a huge problem.

According to conservationist Thanh, there are many large residential areas around the bay whose remains will pollute the ecosystem if not cleaned properly. “Currently, the city of Ha Long can only treat about 40 percent of its wastewater in an environmentally friendly way,” he says.

Tourists complain because the bay is full of rubbish

Disposable bottles are now banned on tourist boats. According to the authorities, the use of single-use plastic has fallen by 90 percent. But the waste produced on land, despite the work of the garbage collectors, spoils the beaches. «Tourist guide Pham Van Tu says many visitors complain to him. “They read in the media that the bay is beautiful, but when they see the debris in the water, they don’t feel like going swimming or canoeing. And they won’t recommend their friends and family to come here.”

German tourist Larissa Helfer is also shocked. “Actually, you should say: ‘Look at the view! Look at the fishing villages!’» she says. But the plastic waste is undeniable. “And that makes you sad.”

One of the main causes of plastic pollution in the oceans

According to the World Bank, rapid economic growth, urbanization and lifestyle changes in communist Vietnam have led to a “plastic pollution crisis.”

According to a 2022 report, 3.1 million tons of plastic waste are produced in the country every year. Ten percent of this ended up in the waterways. This makes Vietnam one of the top five causes of plastic pollution in the oceans. The amount of litter entering the sea could double by 2030, the World Bank warns.

Garbage man Thinh grew up in Ha Long and remembers a very different bay. “It didn’t look that terrible,” she says. “Of course all the work makes me tired and angry. But we have to keep going.” (AFP)

Source: Blick