VietNamNet Bridge - Four of the rivers that provide Hai Phong’s 2 million people with water are heavily polluted, warns Hai Phong Water Supply Limited Company deputy director Vu Hong Duong.

A polluted river in Hai Phong.

These were the Re, Da Do, Chanh Duong and He rivers while the building of a new golf course threatened the Gia, the city’s cleanest river.

“The pollution is very dangerous because the rivers are the source of clean water for the entire city,” said the deputy director whose company includes seven water-supply subsidiaries. The allegations are the result of daily checks done by Hai Phong Water Supply in collaboration with the centre for preventive health.

Eight times

The checks show the pollution in the rivers is sometimes eight times higher than permitted.

The Re River, to the north-west of Hai Phong and which supplies Viet Nam’s third largest city with 80 per cent of its water, is heavily polluted with untreated waste from households, factories and even funeral parlours. One of the latest tests showed that pollution in the river was 4.7 times higher than the allowable limit that was set in 1993, said An Duong Water Supply Company director Nguyen Dac Thien.

The company spent VND4.7 billion ($285,000) to build the 400 metres of dyke to protect the Quan Vinh Pump in the river this year.

“But waste water carrying chemicals and other contaminants is pouring into the river 200m from the pump and this makes filtering difficult and expensive,” he said.

The company must use even more chlorine and build more dykes to protect the pumps.

The director blamed haphazard urbanisation, aquaculture and industrial zones for the pollution.

The Hai Phong shipyards accounted for 60 per cent of the city’s industrial production but were polluting the rivers. Many dump their waste, dust and rust directly into the streams.

A Japan International Co-operation Agency – Finland Government – Hai Phong Administration project intended to end the pollution has yet to work.

Project chairwoman Le Thu Cuc said it had provided low-interest loans for building or upgrading 1,000 toilets and this had helped improve the environment. But the money was not sufficient to defeat the pollution.

Hai Phong Water Supply Company deputy director Vu Hong Duong said the quality of the water would not be controlled in ten years, if the heavy pollution continued.

“We may have to use water from neighbouring Hai Duong,” he said.

(Source: VNS)