According to various officials, the rapid development of greenhouses for vegetable and flower cultivation in the last two decades has had a negative effect on the environment in the central resort city of Da Lat.
Greenhouses have been used in the city to minimise the impact caused by inclement weather, including rainfall, storms, hailstones, hoar frost and humidity.
However, many of them have been built on urban land, which has reduced the amount of rainfall absorbed into the soil and lowered the underground water level. This has also contributed to increased flooding in many areas.
About 70 percent of the greenhouses have not met technical standards, contributing to the spread of disease and viruses, according to a spokesman from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Division of Plant Protection in Lam Dong province.