Save Hanoi's sacred turtles

By Professor Ha Dinh Duc

Member of Species Survival Commission

Editor's note:  Nothing seems to have struck home more to
Hanoians this autumn than the fate of some sacred turtles
endangered by a possible dredging of the bed of Ho Hoan Kiem
(Lake of the Restored Sword). One of the main reasons is
explained by the author on behalf of other noted scientists
who are all worried about the advisability of a dredging
plan proposed by the Municipal Public Works and Highways
Department (PWIID) Excerpts from Prof Duc s analysis:

In a report submitted to the Chairman of the then Council of
Ministers on February 15,1992 I emphasised the need to
protect the priceless species of turtle in Ho Hoan Kiem. I
had gathered different opinions from the City Environment
Committee (EC), the Ecological and Biological Resources
Institute (EBRl),the Culture and Information Service (CIS)
and some noted scientists and they were all thinking that
dredging would change much of the environment and would
finally push the turtles to the brink of extinction.

After considering the report the Chairman decided to
postpone the dredging project and asked the Ministry of
Construction (MC) and the State Sciences Committee (SSC) to
consult with me and several concerned departments
responsible for protecting the turtles living in Ho Hoan
Kiem.

But just a week after I had received a reply from the
Chairman's Orfice, PWHD on March 10,1992 hosted a meeting to
review the dredging project. Among several papers precented
at the meeting was a dredging plan drawn up by Dredging
Company 1, affiliated to the Ministry of Water Resources
(MWR). The main reason, as justified by Company specialists,
was that "heavy pollution of the lake would only stimulate
the spread and development of epidemic diseases and badly
affect the ecological environment for the living turtles."
But their justifications were not convincing enough and the
dredging plan was postponed for further discussion.

On March 24,1992 EBRI met to approve so-called basic
scientific studies and measures for the protection of
turtles and other creatures threatened by the process of
dredging Ho Hoan Kiem." The participants continued to be
divided on the urgency of dredging the lake. Even
explanations of measures to protect the turtles were not
convincing either.

On April 8, 1992, MC held a meeting to  discuss a
feasibility study of dredging Ho Hoan Kiem in connection
with the protection of precious turtles living there. But
justifications and measures were also not accepted. The
proceedings of the meeting were recorded and sent to the
Chairman of the Council of Ministers (now Prime Minister)
for consideration. No reply has yet been received.

Meanwhile, the question of dredging the lake has surfaced
again, in an article by Phung Vinh Quang under the title
"Renovate Ho Hoan Kiem and Protect the Ancient Turtles"
(Nhan Dan, October 10, 1992) and broadcast twice on October
13, 1992 on Radio Hanoi. Some points in this newspaper
article need to be clarified. First, as I mentioned
previously, the March 10,1992 meeting was held by PWHD
"mainly to review the dredging plan." It was not "a seminar
for scientists to discuss measures for protection of the
turtles and other creatures in the process of dredging Ho
Hoan Kiem" as mentioned in the article. Every participant
was given a questionnaire with the following suggestions
"kindly contribute your opinion to PWHD so that we can carry
out the dredging project". The participants did discuss the
question of protecting the turtles but none filled out the
questionnaire. At the meeting, PWHD officials tried to
justify dredging as an urgent project, which they said
should be done before the rainy season this year and, as
they proposed, should be completed in two months and three
days before the first floods start rising from the Red
River. Otherwise, they reasoned, it would be much more
difficult then to fill the lake with water from the Red
River as it would contain too much alluvium. Dredging
Company 1 intended to put in the Lake a Dredger HB-16 (16 by
5 metres in size) with a capacity of 1,320 cubic metres of
mud and water per hour. What would be the fate of the
turtles that have been living peacefully there for hundreds
of years? And how the water of Ho Hoan Kiem would look like
afterwards is anyone's guess.      VNS

Source: Vietnam News November 8, 1992 p. 112.