Coral reefs off the coast of Ly Son Island. (Photo: VNA)Quang Ngai (VNA) - Ly Son Island,30km off the coast of central Quang Ngai province, has had a face-lift sinceconnecting to the national power grid in 2014. But while islanders havebenefited from the rapid changes, serious environmental challenges are alsoarising.
Electronics shops, mobile phones, internetservices and power-driven facilities have mushroomed in theisland. Hotels, guest houses, restaurants and tourism service have beenrapidly built as islanders seek prosperity from tourism rather than labourintensively on farms.
“It’s a great change. Power helps us light upthe island. More speed-boat trips and cargo ships gradually bring the islandcloser to the mainland for trade, tourism and investment,” said islander NguyenThanh Hung.
“It takes only an hour to travel by speed-boatbetween the island and mainland Sa Ky port. Trade has been boosted with theisland,” Hung said, adding that a sea trip between the island and mainland tookone day 20 years ago.
The 54-year-old islander now makes his livingfrom a grocery shop and a garage after two decades running a farm and fishery.
“Farmers have now increased their crops from oneto four. Power equipment created higher productivity,” he said.
View of Ly Son Island from Thoi Loi Moutain. (Photo: VNA)According to archaeologists, Ly Son Island is adormant volcano. The terrain of the island was created from eruptions 25 to 30million years ago, leaving landscapes with rocks, caves, cliffs, rock archesand a lake.
He said a fresh water lake on Thoi Loi Mountainwas formerly the crater of a volcano. It is popular with visitors.
“The island has abundant relics related to theSa Huynh, Champa and Dai Viet (or Great Viet) cultures that existed on theisland for thousands of years,” Dr Pham Quoc Quan, a member of theNational Heritage Council, said.
“Ceramic fragments and other antiquities fromarchaeological excavations revealed the first community living in the islandbelonged to the Sa Huynh culture between 2,500 and 3,000 years ago.
This was followed by the Hindu Champa culture.Migrants from mainland Quang Ngai then settled on the island to set up thethird layer of culture – the culture of the Vietnamese people,” Quan said.
“Architecture, pagodas, temples and ancestortemples were built by the Vietnamese settlers,” he said.
Replica of one of the boats that carried troops on patrol in the Hoang Sa (Paracel) Islands of Vietnam. (Photo: VNA) Quan also added that the island was a safe dockfor merchant boats on busy trading routes centuries ago.
He said islanders still preserved the annualHoang Sa festival. This is held to pay tributes to local men who enlisted in theHoang Sa Flotilla for hundreds of years.
The group was set up under the Nguyen dynasty topatrol the Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelagos and salvagegoods from the many wrecks, catch fish and maintain a Vietnamese presence overthe area.
The festival, which includes a requiem for thosewho had died on the sea patrol missions, a procession of four supernaturalcreatures and the release of lanterns, has been recognised as the NationalIntangible Heritage.
Ly Son is also known as "" in Vietnam, as its farmers have produced high quality garlic andonions for the country.
The soil they were grown in was a mixture ofbasalt and sand taken from the sea off the beach of Ly Son.
Nguyen Thi Thuan, a farmer, said garlic from theisland was quite different to products that grow elsewhere in Vietnam.
“It’s not too hot and has a sweet scent. A kiloof common multiple clove garlic could sell for 80,000 VND (3.50 USD), but oursingle clove garlic could fetch 700,000 VND (31 USD) for one kilo,” Thuan said,adding her small farm of onions earned 30 million VND (1,300 USD) each crop.
Tran Minh Khanh, a hotel owner, said his incomewas five times higher since tourism boomed.
“Our 60-room hotel, which offer rooms from250,000 VND (11 USD) to 800,000 VND (35 USD) are almost 80 percent full atweekends, while we also offer bike rentals for 150,000 VND a day,” Khanh said.He said his family earned 50 million VND (2,200 USD) each month.
Islanders also offer home-stay services for only60,000 VND (2.60 USD).
According to latest reports, 109 hotels, guesthouses and 56 home-stays provide 650 rooms for more than 1,000 tourists eachday.
Secretary of the Ly Son District Party CommitteeNguyen Viet Vy said the island had almost doubled its revenue since its linkedwith the national power grid.
Vy said so far this year, the island’sproduction had earned 1.5 trillion VND (66 million USD), of which 52 percentwas from agriculture and seafood.
He added revenue per capita reached 25 millionVND (1,100 USD) per year.
Huynh Thi Phuong Hoa, deputy director of QuangNgai’s Department of Cuture, Sports and Tourism, said 25 percent of the 800,000visitors to the province also went to the island.
She said the province had planned to develop aneco-tour service and community-based tourism on the island to conserve nature.
Tourists explore farms at a home-stay on the island. (Photo: VNA) 
A jar in Hoang Sa Museum on Ly Sơn. The island has had three layers of culture - Sa Huynh, Champa and Great Viet. (Photo: VNA) 
High quality garlic is grown in sand and basaltic soil on Ly Son. (Photo: VNA) 
A "dinh" (communal house) at An Hai in Ly Son district. (Photo: VNA) 
Farmers collect crops on Ly Son Island. (Photo: VNA) However, expert Vu Cao Minh has warned thatexploitation of beach sand for farming garlic and onions could result to damageto coral reefs around the island, while the boom in hospitality services couldlead to a mass collapse of the underground water structure of the island.
Waste treatment, over-use of pesticides infarming and too many concrete structures would seriously affect the island’slandscape in coming years if no action was taken, Minh added.
National Heritage Council’s member Quan said theisland should protect water resources in a sustainable way because over-use ofunderground water would cause desertification on the island.
The damage to coral reefs must be stopped, whilethe illegal dumping of rubbish and pollutants must be banned, Quan said.
An organic farming and environment-friendlymanners should be adopted as part of sustainable development on the island, hesuggested.-VNA
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