After a couple of weeks moving around Asia I feel a little like this guy, who was resting on the side of the road from Ha Long to Hanoi as truck, bicycle and scooter traffic whizzed by. Sometimes, you feel like you just can’t go on. But on we must. We’re heading back to Hanoi after a tour of the World Heritage Site of Ha Long Bay (“descending dragon”).

The route to and fro is cacophonous and winds through a half-dozen major villages and dozens of wide spots in the road where people peddle fruit (coconuts, pineapple and stinky durian) and other stuffs (sunglasses, hats and local go-juice for man and scooter) and friendly smiles.

The formations of Ha Long, with intricate caves and grottos, are of limestone and were created by erosion a few million years ago. The ocean flooded the plain, giving the place its eery beauty.

The bay is a Mecca for tourism and dozens of “junks” serve the international visitors that jam the quay. A busload of Japanese unload in front of us, led by a cheery hostess waving a yellow flag. The matching hats of the tour group go by in a single file in front of me as we wait for our guide to make arrangements for our private junk (the “Victory 8;”) Capacity: 42, Our group: 6. Not very carbon-friendly, I must say and I feel a little bit guilty about that, but we board and head out to cruise around the limestone formations that jut from the dark green water, like the undulating spines of a giant submerged dragon.

The Bay has short and long-term threats. Short-term stresses include contamination from runoff pollution and the discharge of untreated sewage from the rapidly-developing and urbanizing areas. In the long term, it’s sea level rise. If the seas rise 1 meter, then it is estimated that ~11% of the population of Vietnam will be displaced (about 10 million people, given population growth rates). The most critical areas at-risk are the Red River (which flows through Hanoi) and the Mekong region below Ho Chi Minh City.

The map shows the inundation zones if the average sea level rises by 1 meter. Much of these areas, particularly in the south, host agriculture and aquaculture. It’s not just about getting wet, the initial threats to agriculture, for example, are due to salt water intrusion pushing up into the fresh water growing areas (rice paddies), affecting crop viability and disrupting the food supply.

(“Challenges of Integrated Coastal Management,” Marea Hatziolos World Bank, ENV. ARD HUB Training Nha Trang, Viet Nam. January 14-19, 2008)

For the time being, we are watching the daily life of the Ha Long inhabitants, so many tied so deeply to fishing and life on the water, literally. Floating villages and boat-homes dot the bay, some well-appointed, most humble.

We cruised out for an hour and were served lunch as part of our tour package. After a while a small sanpan intercepted our course and came alongside, carrying two young girls. The boat crew did nothing to dissuade this contact; in fact, I think it was intentional and I would liken it to the symbiotic relationship between remora and shark. The remora gently cleaning the gills of the shark and the shark happy to oblige. The pink-hatted lass stood on the gunwhales of her sanpan and popped up to our window on the starboard side of the junk. She held a small puppy.

“Ms. Ha Long” solicited for small change and did it in such an endearing and gentle manner that we were glad to help her out. Rubbing her fingers together and communicating with her eyes, she looked at everyone at the table, in-turn. After making the rounds and collecting from our group, she lingered at the window, occasionally looking down at her companion who was in their boat. The remains of our meal sat on the table and she gestured towards the plates of rice and fish and a few fried spring rolls. We shrugged. What the heck. We passed the plates to her and she emptied them into some containers. Again, the crew was untroubled and didn’t rise (nor blink an eye). I imagine that all of the citizens around the bay know one another--directly or indirectly--and this is a fine and acceptable part of the tourist trade.

One of our group spoke Vietnamese and found that our visitor lived on a small boat with her sister. She was an orphan and had just turned 12. Whether all or part of that was true, it hardly matters; for her trouble she got around ten dollars from our group and the leftovers which would probably serve up a decent meal for two or three. After ten minutes and an offer to sell the puppy to us, young Ms Ha Long let go the side of our boat and drifted away.

We all wanted to take her back with us. The puppy, too.

Some of these needs have been created by the burgeoning economy and some, unfortunately, are legacy issues left over from the war. One area that affects the social, health, environmental and emotional state of affairs is the dioxin contamination left over from defoliation efforts during “the American War in Vietnam.” An estimated 19 million gallons were sprayed over heavily forested areas to deprive the VC from cover.

The resulting environmental nightmare affected the local population immediately, not only causing disfigurement by direct contact, but by creating grotesque and tragic birth anomalies in ensuing generations. Erosion caused by the destruction of the habitat and loss of important tree species and destruction of the mangroves have had long and lasting effects. It has been estimated that the mangrove swamps will take 100 years to recover, if at all.

The map at left shows the wide (dark) areas that were sprayed during the campaigns, which lasted until 1971 (even after the side effects on human health were known. (Source: http://www.lewispublishing.com/map1.htm)

In a Marxist economy, one doesn’t privatize a State-Owned Entity of SOE. One “equitizes” or “socializes”. To refer to the “P” word is bad form. In Vietnam, 40% of the enterprises are SOEs and they represent the largest polluters.

This is par for course in a communist - cumsocialist centrally run economy that is transforming itself. The difficulty is to convert inefficient industries that cause the majority of the pollution to cleaner and less-offending types of technologies.

Take a little sticky rice--a gelatinous goo-gob about the size of a baseball-- and toss it in a wok of super-heated peanut oil. If you have two ladles and the right technique, in about five minutes you’ll have the largest Rice Krispee in the world.

The ball is cut with scissors and used to roll up a bit of the fish with some nước mắm (fish sauce) and elephant ear fish.

Book-ending our trip with a visit to My Tho and Dragon Island in the Mekong River gave us the opportunity to see both ends (north and south) of the imperiled environment, as tourists anyway. The Red River in the north flows out to the Gulf of Tonkin. The Mekong flows through an expansive delta to the South China Sea.

The trip down the river has been documented in this space before (http://acbcert.com/blog/ Vietnam Four Stories.pdf) but not with the poignancy as we learn more about the envi ronmental threats.

As there are few wastewater treatment plants in Vietnam, much of the pollutants from the urban areas, not to mention agricultural runoff and other surface contamination, ride the rivers to the oceans (not unlike our own beloved Chesapeake Bay.) The key to our engagement is to find ways to work with the Vietnam public and private sector to develop meaningful projects that will bring a benefit to the country as a whole and to the people individually.

Now, the nearly-finished building greets the incoming traffic, which is routed along a greenish-black canal that serves as a colon for the city. So you have paradox and contradiction. On the one hand, an emerging vibrant country with exceptional promise. On the other hand a nation with natural beauty scarred by environmental wounds. It will take a full-press on every level to get the balance right.

Hopefully, at the end of the day, some good will come of it. The industry of the individuals--the cyclo drivers, entrepreneurs, cooks, cleaners, new professionals and tour guides--is inspirational. We gotta try.

Xin cam on

Mike Violette