The mushrooming of industrial zones is
hampering the country’s environmental protection efforts while threatening the
health and livelihoods of residents.

Once
considered a place for the locals to take water home for bathing and cloth
washing, Phu Bai River in central Thua Thien-Hue city Province has turned black, with
malodorous water after being flooded with untreated water discharged from
adjacent Phu Bai Industrial Park.

Local
resident Nguyen Dang Tuan said he had spent a lot of money on building ponds to
raise fish and tortoises but he had to leave them empty after they contracted
diseases from the contaminated water.

“Fish
and tortoise breeding used to bring us VND40 million and VND50 million
(US$2,000-$2,500) in profits a year ago,” said Tuan’s wife Phan Thi Hao, “Our
life is very difficult now because we’ve had to give up the business.”

Some 114
households in Hamlet 2 of Huong Thuy Town’s Thuy Phu Commune also face ruin
after waste water from the Phu Bai industrial zone contaminated their fish
breeding ponds.

Another
264 households in Hamlet 7 also complained that untreated water has left their
cows and buffaloes suffering from ulcers.

An appraisal report conducted by the National Assembly’s Science,
Technology and Environment Committee found 254
industrial zones had been established over a total land area of 69,000ha by the
end of September.

Most of
them have failed to meet the regulated standards on environment protection. Only
60 industrial zones had concentrated waste water treatment plants and another 20
were still building waste water treatment stations, the report said.

It said
about 30,000 tonnes of solid, liquid, gas waste were discharged on average from
these industrial zones daily.

A
General Department for the Environment survey focused on 35 cities and provinces
last year found these localities had annually discharged nearly 985,000 tonnes
of toxic waste, about 7,000 tonnes of solid waste, 19 million tonnes of
household solid waste and over 2 million tonnes of hospital solid waste.

The
deputy head of the General Department for the Environment’s Policy and
Legislation Department, Hoang Minh Son, said an increasing quantity of waste
would be discharged and the situation would worsen in the coming period because
current management and treatment of violations had not met environmental
protection requirements.

The NA
Science, Technology and Environment Committee’s report also said awareness on
the law and regulations related to environmental protection among enterprises
remained limited, while the role of the community in environmental protection
had not yet been fully promoted.

The
report said many industrial zones were adjacent to rivers to take advantage of
water supplies and for discharging waste. The situation had affected not only
the living conditions of people in the immediate vicinity, but also caused
environmental pollution over a large area.

The
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is well aware of the problem and
recently issued a circular regulating the management and protection of the
environment in economic, high-tech and industrial zones.

Under
the circular, zones which have already been in operation, but have not yet been
equipped with concentrated waste water treatment plants, will be required to put
these plants into operation before December 31.

Natural
Resources and Environment Minister Pham Khoi Nguyen has also confirmed that the
ministry would strengthen supervision of the law and regulations on
environmental protection at industrial and export processing zones.

Earlier,
Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong warned that Viet Nam would pay a heavy
price in the future if it did not promote sufficient awareness of the importance
of environmental protection.

Trong
asked ministries, industries, cities and provinces to reach a consensus to
protect the environment and combine targets on environmental protection with
socio-economic development targets.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News