Final report on : WATER FNVINRONMFNTAL QUALI1Y OFHALONG BAY, VIETNAM By: Working Group of WEQHB project of HIO Chief Editor : Dr. Nguyen Chu Hoi Secrectariat : B. Sc. Luu Van Dieu Submitted Jointly to : VISED, IDRC, MOSIE and HIO. Haiphong, March, 1995 Acronyms: HIO : Haiphong Institute of Oceanology IDRC : International Development Research Center MOSIE : Ministry of Sciens, Technology and Envinroment WEQHB: Water Environment Quality of Ha Long Bay VISED : Vietnam Sustainable Economic Development ESSA: ESSA Technologies Ltd. NEA: National Environment Agency of MOSTE DIC : Department for International Cooperation of MOSTE 1-ILBMP : Ha Long Bay Master-Plan Contents Page Introduction Nguyen Chu Hoi 1 0Japlcr [. G(!n~ral issues 3 1.1. Geographical limits Nguyen Chu Hoi 3 1.2. Research scope Nguyen Chu 1-/oi 3 1.3. Main socio - economic characteristics Nguyen Chu Hoi 3 1.4. Morphological and Geomorphological features of the Halong Bay Dinh Van Huy 6 1.5. Geological feature of I-I along bay area Tran Dinh Lan 8 1.6. Main ecosystems Nguyen Chu Hoi 10 Pham Dinh Trang 1. 7. Human activities Tran Dinh Lan 12 Chapter 2. Methodology Luu Van Dicu 14 2.1. Station net work 2.2. Duration 2.3. Equipments 2.4. Collection and Preservation of samples 2.5. ;\nalyzing methods 2.6. Parameters 2. 7. Prosessing results Chapter 3. Physical condition of Halong area 18 3.1. Clitnate Do Dinh CIJicn 18 3.2. Marine hydrology Do Dinh Chien 19 3.3. Fluvial hydrology Do Dinh Chien 20 3.4. Hydrochemical characteristics in Halong Bay Pham Van Luong 25 3.5. Comments Pham Van Luong 36 D1aptcr 4. Biological charateristics in Halong Bay 37 4.1. Phytoplankton Chu Van Thuoc 37 4.2.Zooplankton Nguyen 7hi 7hu 42 4.3. Zoobenthos Pham Dinh Trang 43 Lang VanKen 4.4. Marine algae and seagrass Le Thi Thanh 53 Nguyen Van Tien 4.5. Fish Nguyen Nhat 7hi 53 54 4.6. General remark Lang VanKen OJaplcr 5. Present status of Ha Long Bay water environment 55 5 .1. Organic pollution Luu VanDicu 55 5.2. Oil content in water Luu VanDieu 64 5.3. Pesticides residues in the Ha Long waters Pham Ngoc Hung 66 5 .4. Heavy metals Luu VanDieu 68 5.5. Nutrients Pham Van Luong 72 5.6. Sulphate content (SO/-) Luu Van Dieu 85 5.7. Microorganisms (Escherichia coli) Dam Due Tien 86 5.8. Transparency and light penetration Tran Dinh Lan 88 5.9. CmTent status of garbage in area Tran Dinh Lan 92 Ch~p!cr 6 A<>scssment of Ha L.ong Bay Water Quality 93 6.1. Pollutants. Luu VanDieu 93 6.2. Pollutiant sources to Ha Long Bay Waters Luu VanDieu 94 6.3. Perliminary assessment of the impacts of the pollution on the health of dwellers and ecosystems. Lang Van Ken . 95 6.4. Ha long Bay waters environment in the future Luu Van Dieu 96 Conclusions and Recommendations. Luu Van Dieu 97 Main references 98 Annex 1. Illustration photographs of the survey 99 Annex 2. Illustration photographs of Human activities 102 Annex 3. Long-term water Quality Monitoring 107 (tentative Proposal second phase) Annex 4. Chromatograms of Gas Chromatographic Procedure for Organochlorine Pesticides 109 Annex 5. Chromatograms of Infrared Specctrophotometric Procedure for oil contents 119 Annex 6. Bottom relief of I Ia Long Bay illustrated on echo sounding papers. 122 Introduction: • Vietnam is major marine country in Southeast Asia. Like other countries in the region, Vietnam is faced with a number of resource and environmental issues within its coastal zone such as: marine pollution, loss of marine biodiversity, over-fishing ... Because of this, Vietnam recently have adopted a environmental framework entitled National plan for Environmental and Sustainable Development and Environmental protection Law of Vietnam. • Ha Long Bay is an area of unique natural beauty and has been adopted the natural World Heritage by UNESCO in its 18th annual meeting. It contains numerous limestone islands, coastal and marine ecosystems. So Ha Long Bay attracts thousands of tourists ( both domestic and foreign) every year. Ha Long Bay is one of five top tourist destinations in Vietnam according to World Bank (1992), It held about 10% of total visitors. Other important activities in the study area include fishing, small scale industries and manufacturing. In Hong Gai estuary, just in North of the study area, there arc a number of port industry facilities. • Ha L.ong city have just been established by Vietnam's government in 1994. The city will cover the study area and its upland area. So environmental impacts of the development project in the future will appear. Because of the environmental importance, IDRC and VISED have assisted the HIO a grant to undertake water quality assessment in I-Ia Long Bay. The purpose of the Grant as following: - To investigate the contaminants, their sources and their influence on environment quality in Ha L.ong Bay waters. - To assess their environmental impact on ecosystem and their influence on the economy. - To provide for the forcca'iting of pollution intensity in the future. The project involved the participation of the scientific staff from Haiphong Institute of Oceanology (1-IIO) in some fields of marine pollution monitoring, marine ecology, marine geo-environment and coastal management. These scientists were ·,'-,>rking in close collaboration and heartfelt support of technical and management experts of IDRC, ESSA and VISED (Canada). This document is the final report of WEQI-IB. It provides the research results concerning the water environmental quality in 1-Ia L.ong Bay based on original fieldworks, sampling and data collection, as well as analytic results. It also combined with synthesizing existing data from other sources. First, the document also provides baseline information about environmental quality which could be prepared for use in Master Plan in Ha Long Bay area. It will help us to plan environmental monitoring strategy for long-term in Ha Long Bay for the next step. This document is the product of input from many HIO researchers, from Canadian experts (IDRC, ESSA, VISED) and other, who has participated and advised in the project. We particularly wish to thank the international experts for their hard work and effective help in process of project implementation. Dr. W.R. Spence , Regional Director and Dr. Stephen R. Tyler, environmental expert, and o~her from IDRC have had valuable comments, opinions for project establishment and fonnulation of interim reports. Mr. Ashley J. Bansgrove from ESSA Technologies Ltd. has been the technical advisor of the project. Dr. Jingjal Hanchanlash has timely supports and project management. Finally, we also thank very much Prof. Le Qui An, vice-minister of MOSTE, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Sinh of NEA, Mr. Dau Dinh Loi and Mr. Thach Can of DIC, who assisted in the formulation and implementation of the project. The errors of the report is inevitable due to limitation of the time and English languages, as well as lacking knowledge and experiences of research staff. So we would like to receive opinions of the experts and others. 2 Chapter 1. General issues 1.1 Geographical limits I-Ia Long Bay study area is located in Quangninh province, Northern Vietnam (fig.l ). It is bordered to the Northern by Bai Tu Long Bay, to the South by Cat Ba islands, to the West by land area Quangninh province and to the East by nearshore water of the Tonkin Gulf. The study area includes two water bodies : Baichay embayment and Ha Long bay, linking with each other by Cua Luc inlet of 600m in width. The water surface area of Baichay embayment 2 and then into Ha Long Bay is about 27 km • The water of rivers are coming directly into Baichay embayment and then into Ha Long Bay throughout Cua Luc inlet. 1.2. Research Scope. Under the items of the Grant, surveying and assessment pertaining to water environment in the Ha Long Bay have been carried out by 1994. For purposes of the WEQHB project, the HIO and ESSA have defined the I-Ia Long Bay study area consisting of coastal waterbodies, small islands and portions of adjacent upland (fig.l ). There has been very little scientific investigation of marine water quality in Ha Long Bay, and no long- tenn monitoring of any type. It is difficult to comment on current water quality conditions. Thus the key parameters of water environmental quality have been and taken, as following: Safjnity, DO (Dissolved Oxygen), COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand}, BOD (Biochemical Oxgcn Demand), S'M (Suspended meller), Turbidity, Clarity (Secchi disk}, oil, total pho!>phorous, Nitrogen-nitrite (N02), Sulphate (S04}, Heavy metals {Cd, Cu, Hg, Pb}, Pesticide, Fecal Colilorms. In addition, the depth of water, water circulation, biodiversity, bottom sediments and plankton have been newly calculated and collected. 1.3. Main socio-economic characteristics. • Population and heath ofdwellers. Population of Quangninh province is approximately 814,000 among which are 12,000 persons in Baichay and 1-Iongai towns. Ar.; estimated by the local authority, there are ten thousands of visitors coming to have short rest in Baichay every year. I Women labors among which arc 90% working in hotels hold 60% of the total population. 111e rest of women labors arc working on fishery, agriculture and light industry. W hat is more, half of annual visitors who just like swimming are female. Actually, to solve the 3 problem of Halong bay water environmental quality depends largely upon how to solve gender issues. It is women who should be educated at an obligated level of the environment and environmental protection. However, environments have influence, in tum, on health of dwellers and especially children. From the data of Vietnam- Swedish hospital in Quangninh, there arc 92 diseases often occurring to the children, among which arc 22 diseases found to be the most common, namely.