In 2004 the West Lake Investment and Development Company introduced a project to improve the quality of water in West Lake by aquatic plants. According to the project’s authors, this method is ‘killing two birds with one stone” because growing aquatic plants could restrict pollution-causing factors while they are animal feed and materials to produce fertiliser.
This company also presented another method: treating the lake’s water by useful microorganisms. Under the influence of microorganisms, the bad smell in the lake would decrease remarkably and the lake’s environment would be improved without having to dredge or change the water. Microorganisms could be brought to the lake in forms of solution or pills so the lake’s landscape would not be affected like using aquatic plants.
Meanwhile, Professor Vu Hoan from the Union of Hanoi Scientific and Technological Associations suggested the use of locally made, low cost microbiological products to treat the lake’s water environment. Those products are being used at a lake near the Kieu Ky rubbish dump in Gia Lam District, Hanoi and some shrimp ponds, and have proven highly effective.
The Union of Hanoi Scientific and Technological Associations is compiling a scheme to submit to Hanoi authorities asking for permission to apply this method to treat the water environment at some lakes in Hanoi like Bay Mau and Xa Dan and then at other lakes after that.
In 2005, Professor Nguyen Lan Dung, a National Assembly deputy, presented a measure to improve the water environment of some lakes by different technologies which were successfully applied in China.
