HCM City plans to speed up the task of moving production establishments causing pollution out of residential areas.
Dong Hung Thuan Commune in District 12 is one of the hot spots of pollution caused by factories, which include those making wood products and welding, waste paper recycling, and printing units.
The noise, wastewater and fumes released by these establishments have affected the lives of local residents.
Nguyen Toan Thang, chairman of the District 12 People’s Committee, said most of the 30-odd factories in Dong Hung Thuan came there from inner city areas in 1997-2001.
Most of them have waste treatment facilities but mostly for show to satisfy inspectors, he said.
In other outlying districts like Binh Tan, Hoc Mon, and Cu Chi too, thousands of households suffer from noise, fumes, and waste from production establishments.
Dao Anh Kiet, director of the city Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said since 2002 the People’s Committee has identified more than 1,400 polluters for relocation from residential areas to outlying districts.
Most of them have indeed relocated or stopped causing pollution, he said.
But this migration simply caused the springing up of polluting, unplanned industrial clusters like the one in Dong Hung Thuan Commune and another – a dyeing cluster — in Binh Tan District’s Binh Hung Hoa Ward.
Nguyen Gia Thai Binh, deputy chairman of the Binh Tan District People’s Committee, said the district has hauled up and fined 144 polluting firms and production establishments since 2008.
The district has studied and found another 164 operating in sectors prone to pollution like dyeing, cloth washing, plating, and grinding of plastic scrap, he said.
According to many local authorities, rapid urbanisation has led to the growth of residential areas around production facilities in outlying districts.
To prevent pollution, the department has drawn up a list of production facilities not situated in zoned areas and those causing pollution and sought funds from the People’s Committee to relocate polluting units.
It has completed a plan to relocate severely polluting one.
The city would soon move 31 polluters out of Dong Hung Thuan Commune, Kiet said.
The department has also petitioned the People’s Committee to instruct industrial clusters, industrial parks, and industrial processing zones with waste treatment facilities to take them in.
