The edge of Hanoi’s To Lich River. Deputy Mayor Vu Hong Khanh said local residents were contributing to the pollution problem by throwing rubbish into waterways.

Residents have to take some of the blame for pollution, a People’s Council meeting heard Thursday.

The city’s Deputy Mayor Vu Hong Khanh Thursday blasted the management boards of Hanoi industrial parks, accusing them of doing little to upgrade their wastewater treatment facilities.

Khanh was speaking at the regular session of the Hanoi’s People’s Council, the municipal legislature which votes for and oversees the operation of the People’s Committee, or the city government.

Only three out of 35 industrial zones and complexes in Hanoi have installed adequate wastewater treatment systems, Khanh said. The region’s 1,000 local craft villages also pump untreated wastewater into the rivers, he added.

People’s Council deputy Nguyen Hoai Nam said: “The [Hanoi] government called for increased investment and establishment of industrial parks several years ago. The pollution controls should have been taken into account then.”

“Why does environmental pollution continued to exasperate residents?” Nam asked.

Deputies demanded Khanh explain the worsening pollution of Hanoi’s lakes, accusing authorities of handling the situation poorly.

Deputy Nguyen Viet Hung said swift action must be taken to tackle lake pollution as the city’s 1,000th birthday in 2010 was nearing, local newswire VnExpress reported.

Deputy Mayor Khanh admitted the lake pollution had confounded city authorities, but pointed out several hurdles, including cost, had hindered cleanup work.

It would cost around VND1.2 trillion (US$70.4 million) to reduce the lake pollution levels by 10 percent, Khanh said.

The city government promised to cut the lake pollution levels by 40 percent by 2015 provided there would be enough resources, Khanh told the meeting.

Khanh said part of the problem was that Hanoians kept dumping garbage into waterways.

Hanoi Department of Natural Resources and Environment has accused industry, construction and mining in northern Thai Nguyen and Quang Ninh provinces and city building sites as the major contributors to air pollution.

Up to 43 percent of Hanoians suffer from chronic diseases related to the ears, nose and throat, including respiratory diseases like pneumonia, according to a Ministry of Health report released in March.

On Hanoi’s main roads, the air dust content is five to seven times higher than recommended limits and at construction sites, 20-30 times higher, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s statistics in July.

The city has more than 1,000 construction sites at present and every month around 10,000 square meters of roads are dug up for infrastructure projects but construction companies do little to protect the environment, the ministry said.

Hanoi’s waterways are in terrible condition. Most of the rivers are just drains for untreated wastewater from hospitals, markets, factories, hotels and the homes of the city’s five million residents, Tuoi Tre newspaper quoted Dr. Hoang Duong Tung, director of the Environmental Observation and Information Center under the Environment Ministry, as saying.

The 14.4 kilometer-long To Lich River is the city’s main drainage system. Wastewater is constantly discharged directly into it from thousands of pipes. The Set, Lu and Kim Nguu rivers which run through the city center are also extremely polluted.

Several years ago the city administration dredged some local rivers and found everything imaginable dumped including skulls and bones.

“Most of Hanoi’s rivers have zero life index, as no living creature can survive there,” said Tung.

Source: TN, Agencies