The Nhue-Day river basin continues to suffer from pollution despite a range of environmental protection projects that have been carried out on the area by several agencies including the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, a conference in northern Nam Dinh Province heard on Tuesday.
The river basin covers 7,665sq.km and flows through the four northern provinces of Ninh Binh, Nam Dinh, Hoa Binh, Ha Nam and Ha Noi City. Chairman of the Nhue-Day River Environment Protection Committee Nguyen The Thao said all five administrative areas had not reached targets setting up at the start of the three-year programme titled Managing Water Quality in the Nhue-Day River Basin.
The level of pollution in the water had steadily deteriorated with many stretches of the river becoming seriously polluted, especially during the dry season, Thao said.
In 2008 Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved the project on Nhue-Day River’s Environment Protection by 2020, with 12 small projects worth VND3.34 trillion (US$163 million) from the State budget.
The present situation has been attributed to poor operations of the committee and possible solutions for improving water quality include building wastewater treatment systems using the Plasma Gasification Process and planting more trees at the river’s source.
The ministries of Finance and Natural Resources and Environment plan to contribute more money for wastewater treatment systems and improving dyke systems and pumping stations along the river basin.
Protecting the river basin is seen as an important step in maintaining the socio-economic development of the five northern provinces.
