Ayun Ha Lake

The still water of Ayun Hạ Lake is the result of one decision that changed this whole stretch of land.

In early 1994, the Ayun River was held back. It was not a flood and not a disaster. People reached into the natural flow of the river and built an irrigation works. The water rose slowly, spread into the valleys, and covered the low ground between the mountain ranges. That is how Ayun Hạ Lake came to be.

This is not simply a lake made for scenery. It is an irrigation reservoir, run by the Gia Lai Irrigation Works Management Company, and tied to the canals and ditches that water the farmland in the southeast of Gia Lai. From the lake, water runs through channels to fields of sugarcane, rice paddies and vegetable gardens belonging to tens of thousands of households. So the beauty of Ayun Hạ is not the beauty of a wild place that belongs to no one. It carries real value for the life of a whole region.

In the rainy season the water climbs, and the lake fills out, deep green. The mountain ranges lie reflected on the surface like an ink-wash painting. In the dry season the level drops and leaves banks of mud and a fringe of grass along the shore. That is when the people of the Ayun area walk out to the edge of the lake to gather clams, cast nets and catch small shrimp to add to the day's meals. The Gia Lai newspaper once recorded women wading through the mud, each carrying a basin of clams, with the late sun throwing long shadows behind them. It is a different layer of life from the one in most tourist photographs.

From a boat on the water near the foot of the dam, the lake shows itself in a way the shore cannot. The whole surface opens out between two walls of mountain. Because this is a working reservoir, its level changes with the seasons, following the rules that govern the reservoirs of the Ba River basin together, so each visit finds a different face.

The lake is often paired with two other places in a single day: Phú Cường Waterfall and the Plei Ơi site, a national historical and cultural monument. In 2019, the areas of Chư Sê and Phú Thiện signed an agreement to develop a tourist route linking these three places, with plans for a boat pier and dragon boats to cruise the lake. In 2022, the lake drew more than 10,000 visits, and many people took part in the local community's ceremony to pray for rain. The number shows that the lake is more than a technical stop on a route. It is slowly becoming part of tourism in Gia Lai.

Watching the fishing boats drift far out on the water, one sees what keeps this land alive. It is right there in front of the eyes: a dam, a reservoir, a work that people built more than 30 years ago. It quietly feeds farms and supplies water for daily life, and now it takes one more step, to welcome visitors.

That is the beauty of Ayun Hạ. It is not the beauty of grandeur, but of usefulness that lasts. And even today the lake is still there, its water calm among the Gia Lai mountains and forests, quietly doing its work.