cooking1-072-09.jpg" hspace="1" align="left" vspace="1" class=pix>
A chicken pho restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City. Municipal authorities are concerned about the safety of local food and water.

Ho Chi Minh City residents are increasingly at risk of food poisoning while agencies have demonstrated a deficiency in problem solving skills, officials said at a meeting Thursday.

Fourteen were killed by poisonous wine, according to the center.

Mass food poisonings at schools last year surged to seven cases from two in 2007.

The center, which is in charge of ensuring food safety and hygiene in the city, reported that health officials had not discovered the cause of more than half of the 42 major food poisoning cases over the past two years.

Cai Phuc Thang from the Department of Propaganda and Training at the city’s Communist Party Unit said he was angry at the reports and questioned the competency of the staff and equipment at the center.

Nguyen Sy Hao, deputy head of the center’s Food Hygiene and Safety Department, said in some cases, samples of the poisoned food or drink had not been collected while several cases had so many possible causes that officials couldn’t pinpoint the main factor.

Hao admitted there were times the center couldn’t figure out the problem even after examining the food that caused the poisoning.

Thang suggested the center needed to take control of food hygiene and safety initiatives even at the ward and commune levels.

“Ward and commune officials aren’t qualified to do that,” he said.

Deputy Nguyen Dang Nghia of the council said the preventive health center “shouldn’t let the residents live with unhygienic and unsafe food any longer.”

The center should have a review to identify difficulties so the city administration could help come up with solutions, Nghia said.

Drinking water not drinkable

As 67 percent of the city’s bottled water plants and 61 percent of ice-making plants failed hygiene inspections by the health center last year, councilor Nguyen Van Minh said the center should tighten its control over the ice making and water bottling process.

Also, 12 percent of the underground water used by city locals last year didn’t meet safety standards. The figure was higher than that in 2007.

“Residents cannot feel safe about the quality of water these days,” said council member Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hanh.

Pham Van Hai, vice chairman of the city’s Fatherland Front Committee, questioned the capacity of the preventive heath center, saying it might not be able to check the quality of all water supplies used by locals, including tap water and well water.

Hai asked whether the center had tested the water in Binh Hung Hoa A Ward of Tan Phu District, where many locals had complained of illness, and even death, due to bad water. Some residents said the water was even causing cancer.

But Hoang Thi Ngoc Ngan from the center said the agency had tested the water and found no poisonous metals or toxic chemicals.

Reported by Thanh Tung