Authorities in the northern province of Bac Ninh have approved a project to deal with pollution caused by the Phong Khe paper craft village.
The project, worth VND100 billion (US$4.8 million), was set up by the provincial Natural Resources and Environment Department.
As much as 80 per cent of the project’s funds are sourced from the provincial budget, the rest has been contributed by the paper producers in the craft village, according to director of the department Tran Quang Huy.
Statistics from the department show the craft village now has 234 paper producers but only three treat wastewater before discharging it into environment.
Lack of fundings for treatment facilities had been blamed for the situation, Huy said.
According to the statistics, the concentration of toxic substances in the discharged wastewater is 7 to 21 times higher than permitted by safety standards.
It is estimated that paper producers discharge 5,000 cubic metres of waste water daily, which has a serious impact on the quality of both surface and underground water in the Ngu Huyen Khe River.
“The paper craft village is one of the top five villages causing serious pollution in the province,” Huy said.
Almost all the paper producers had agreed with the department on the project a month ago, he said. They also committed to apply new technologies in producing paper to help limit pollution.
Huy said operations at paper producers that continued to cause serious pollution would be suspended.
Solid waste discharged from the craft village will be collected and treated at the provincial waste treatment area, where it will be buried.
The Bac Ninh City People’s Committee has been assigned as an investor in work on treating water from the river as well as in ponds, lakes and canals that are polluted by the village.
The project is expected to begin early next month.
