LookAtVietnam – The Ha Noi People’s Council have approved a VND1.3 trillion (US$72.2 million) project to cut pollution by next year.

Nam Son, Ha Noi’s largest sewerage treatment plant.

Of the total, VND1.01 trillion ($56 million) would be spent on eight programmes to cut water and air pollution, and VND310 billion ($17.2 million) would go to programmes to treatolid waste in districts.

The project will include collecting and treating waste water for parts of the To Lich River, building Cau Nga Factory which can treat 15,000cu.m of waste water a day, setting up solid waste treating zones in Chuong My and Dong Anh districts, and Son Tay town, and dredging the Nhue river.

“The city will cut pollution in seven rivers this year, and the remaining 26 rivers will be treated in 2010,” Khanh said

The most pressing areas of the issue are water pollution, air pollution and the disposal of solid waste in the city, according to Khanh.

Dust level high

A survey of 250 areas across the city revealed 180 had dust levels 10 times higher than the national standard.

The amount of dust in Nguyen Trai street exceeded the standard by 11 times, and Nguyen Van Linh Street was 10.8 times higher.

“Industrial facilities are only able to treat 20-30 per cent of the amount of waste water produced in the city, ” Khanh said.

“Only eight out of 48 hospitals and health centres have waste treatment systems.”

According to incomplete statistics from the city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment, every day the city discharges about 750 tonnes of industrial solid waste, but only 60 per cent is treated.

Officials from the department said by the end of this year, Xuan Son rubbish dump in Son Tay town would be full. By 2011, the city’s largest dumps will also be filled to capacity.

To boost clean-up effort, the model (reduce, reuse, recycle), launched in 2006, will be expanded in the remaining districts of the city.

The campaign was successfully launched in Dong Da, Ba Dinh, Hoan Kiem and Hai Ba Trung districts back in 2006.

The 3R project aims at reducing the amount of rubbish in landfill sites by 70 per cent, and boosting public awareness on recycling.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News