City authorities have urged local agencies to work more closely with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to curb the rising levels of air and water pollution in HCM City.
Pham Van Dong, head of the Economic and State Budget Division of the city People’s Council, said the department must co-operate with neighbouring provinces, such as Dong Nai and Binh Duong, in its battle to reduce pollution.
Speaking at a meeting on Wednesday, Dong said the department must submit by November 5 a detailed report on pollution data, the relocation of polluting companies, and waste treatment systems in industrial parks and hospitals.
At the meeting, the department reported that seven of 37 companies ordered to move to outlying areas of the city in 2003 because of excessive pollution had not relocated.
Of the seven companies, five were expected to relocate by the end of this year.
The city’s canals, especially those used for irrigation, are severely polluted because of wastewater released from companies and industrial parks, according to the department.
Test results of water quality showed that several sections of B, C and An Ha canals near Tan Phu Trung Industrial Park and Phuoc Hiep Rubish Dump had Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5) and coliform that far exceeded permitted levels.
The department said the city’s hospitals and clinics discharged a total of 23,000cu.m of waste a day and only 49 of 113 hospitals and clinics had standard wastewater treatment systems.
Nguyen Van Phuoc, deputy director of the department, said the city’s 15 industrial parks and export processing zones had consolidated wastewater treatment systems.
However, at the Tan Phu Trung Industrial Park alone, companies have not connected their wastewater treatment facilities to the industrial parks’ treatment system, and many companies have released untreated wastewater directly into Tham Luong Canal.
Near the Tan Phu Trung Industrial Park, there were several industrial parks in Tay Ninh Province that did not treat wastewater properly, he said.
The department is calling for investment from private investors to help finance waste treatment systems for the 20 hospitals in HCM City without treatment facilities.
Since June 2009, the city has fined 155 companies a total of VND3.2 billion (US$160,000) for discharging untreated wastewater into the environment, according to the city’s Environment Police Division.
