Water hyacinths can be seen swarming an area of the Bai Sau beach in Vung Tau, at an intersection between Thuy Van and Le Hong Phong streets, on May 28.
A few days prior, the water hyacinths began appearing off the coasts, before rushing onto shores as the tides rose. The phenomenon repeats over the next few days, making a 3-kilometer beach section filled with waste.
An area near the Flag Pole Square has been cleaned, but the roots of the water hyacinths can still be seen in aerial photos.
Around 300 meters away from the site, water hyacinths continue to plague a beach where several tourists are hanging out at.
Le Thuy, a tourist from Ben Tre in the Mekong Delta, said she had come to Vung Tau many times before, but this was the first time she saw so many water hyacinths.
"It's weird because this is a sea," she said.
Over the past days, the Vung Tau Environment Services and Urban Project company has been deploying vehicles to collect the waste and transport them away.
The company has deployed 50-70 personnel to certain sites to collect the waste, starting from 4 a.m. every day.
"The number of water hyacinths is too high. Mixed with sand and seawater, collecting them all is difficult. We would not be able to handle them all manually," a company representative said, adding that the firm collects around 30 tons of waste a day.
So far, the beach section near the Flag Pole Square has been cleaned.
Oceanic waste invading Vung Tau beaches happens every year, especially after heavy downpours. Water hyacinths and other waste would come from rivers in Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai and the Mekong Delta to the sea, before making their way to the beaches.
Nguyen Xuan Hau, vice director of the Vung Tau Environment Services and Urban Project Company, said the cleanup should be done by the end of the week.
