VietNamNet Bridge – Considering waste sources is believed to be
the most important work in the environment protection. However, as Associate
Professor Dr Bui Cach Tuyen, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and the
Environment admitted, not much has been done in this job in order to protect
key rivers from pollution.

In 2009 and 2010, the General Department of Environment carried out surveys to find out the waste sources, current
situations and the impacts on the environment in the valley of Cau,
Nhue-Day and Dong Nai rivers. In the current conditions of the socio-economic
development, big changes in waste sources can be seen regularly. Therefore,
Tuyen said it is necessary to build up a database about waste sources which
have been updated regularly. It is also necessary to make investments to build
comprehensive environmental quality supervision systems which allow getting
reliable figures to draw up reasonable management policies.

Tuyen has affirmed that these are the key tasks his ministry will
instruct its officers to carry out in the time to come.

However, due to many reasons, including the lack of money and local
workforce, the surveying and reckoning up of waste resources has not been
carried out as regular task in order to meet the requirements of the management
work.

Dr Nguyen Dinh Tuan, President of the HCM
City Junior
College for Natural Resources and the Environment, also said
that Vietnam
still cannot settle the environment pollution problem to the every root, while
it only draws up plans to improve the situation. Sometimes, state agencies
release figures about environment pollution and protection, but the figures are
just estimates.

While waiting for state management agencies to make statistics and draw
up measures, people still have to face high risks from the environment
pollution. Some canals in Thu Duc in HCM
City, for example, now
have to receive the waste water both from the nearby residential quarters and
from the industrial zones in Binh Duong province.

In 2010, the Committee for the Environment Protection of the Dong Nai
river’s Valley, submitted the list of the industries which should not be
existing on the area. The committee has proposed the government not to grant
investment licenses to the projects in the fields of wheat flour processing,
rubber latex, basic mechanicals production, dyeing, tanning and seacooking
processing.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MNRE) has also
instructed its department of environment to compile a government decree,
stipulating the production fields which may cause pollution and need to be
restricted or prohibited on the valleys of important rivers. In the immediate
time, the restrictions and bans should be imposed on Cau, Nhue-Day and Dong Nai
rivers.

However, Tuyen from MNRE admitted that it would be difficult to
implement the task because this may not come in line with the current
regulations stipulated in different laws, including the investment law, the
enterprise law and the socio-economic development programs of the localities
situated on rivers’ valley.

The HCM City
authorities have released statistics about the waste sources to the Saigon River,
which shows that 64 percent of industrial production establishments do not have
water waste treatment systems.

After surveying and collecting information from 17 districts in HCM City,
the city’s authorities have found that there are three main waste sources which
directly affect the water environment of the Saigon River’s
valley, including industrial, agricultural waste water and the waste from urban
areas

Of the three sources, the waste from urban areas is the biggest
polluting source in both quantity (63 percent) and polluting substances. The
organic substances and suspended solids in the domestic wastewater account for
the large proportion in the total polluted volume of waste water BOD5: 88%, COD: 85%, SS: 91%.

Regarding the industrial waste water, the survey has found that 64 percent
of industrial waste water still does not have waste water treatment systems.

269 enterprises have been found as to having no waste water treatment
systems, accounting for 60 percent of surveyed enterprises. Waste water flow
comes mostly from the districts of Thu Duc, Nha Be, Districts 9 and 12.

Source: SGTT