The Saigon River’s pollution is at a worrying level after a recent survey showed that the river is still receiving huge amounts of untreated wastewater every day, according to the HCM City Environmental Protection Agency.

Nguyen Cuu Long Giang, chief of the agency’s supervision division, said the agency has just completed a four-month investigation into 450 enterprises discharging wastewater directly into the river and were alarmed by the findings.

They were shocked to find out that 270 out of 450 investigated enterprises had no wastewater facilities. But even a large number of enterprises that had the facilities still discharged treated wastewater that violated permitted levels.

The investigation showed the enterprises are discharging into the Saigon River some 61,000 cubic meters of industrial wastewater every day, in addition to 2,200 cubic meters being discharged from cattle-breeding farms and over 100,000 cubic meters of household wastewater.

Industries responsible for most wastewater discharge include clothing and textile, cookingstuff production and chemical production.

Furthermore, household wastewater discharged by families along the river basin has also polluted the river with increasing organic and coliform content. Thu Duc, Nha Be, District 9 and District 12 are the localities that discharge the largest amount of household wastewater into the river.

According to the environmental protection agency, the contents of some pollutants such as organic, coliform and oil are increasing. Particularly, the coliform content at Phu Cuong monitoring station on the Saigon River showed an astonishing increase of 131 times compared to the same period last year.

Giang said if the investigation was conducted at the thousands of industrial enterprises in the city, the amount of untreated wastewater discharged into the river would be even more frightening.

The 24 canals that are the most polluted and flow into the river include Tham Luong-Vam Thuat, Bui Huu Nghia, Thi Nghe, Ben Nghe, Tra, Son and Thanh Da.

The Saigon–Dong Nai river system supplies huge amounts of crude water source for the operation of some key water plants in the city such as Tan Hiep water plant and Thu Duc water plant.

On a larger scale, families living along the waterways leading directly to the Saigon River in Tay Ninh, Binh Duong and HCMC are discharging nearly 900,000 cubic meters of wastewater into the river each day.

The household wastewater from these three localities is expected to increase up to 1.1 million cubic meters by 2020, according to an environmental survey conducted by Lam Minh Triet, a city environmentalist.

In a document to the city government recently, Vo Quang Chau, deputy general director of Saigon Water Supply Corporation (Sawaco), said the corporation has only temporarily coped with the worsening pollution of the river to ensure the tapwater production of its water plants.

Chau said if the pollutants and salt penetration in the river continue to increase in the future, Sawaco’s water plants will face more difficulties in treating the crude water and that could bring about serious consequences over the tapwater supply for the city.

He petitioned the related departments of the city to come up with quick solutions to curb the pollution.

Source: SGT