Hanoi’s To Lich River is known for its heady fragrance and death-black palette, but that could all be about to change.
Tadashi Yamamura, a UN environment expert and president of the Japan Environment and Trade Promotion Organization, claims Japan intends to help clean a section of To Lich River using a new form of biotechnology.
The 14-kilometer river currently suffers from intense levels of pollution, largely as a result of both industrial and household effluence, which flows directly into the water.
Over the last few years, both local and foreign volunteers have attempted to clean up the river, and rafts of floating plants have been added, but it remains in a putrid state. Ecologists even claim the river is effectively “dead.”
Yamamura and his team, however, spent two years surveying the river before making their recent proposal, VietnamNet reports.
“Our experts from Japan will place some bio-nanotechnology equipment at the bottom of the river to clean up the water, and significant results will be seen after three days,” Yamamura said.
Reports suggest the same technology will also be tested on certain areas of West Lake, although it is not yet clear when the cleaning will take place.
