VietNamNet Bridge - As the shortage of clean water for irrigation has become serious, local authorities are trying every possible way to bring clean water to fields.

To produce clean rice, vegetables and fruits, farmers need safe land which is not infected with heavy metals and with toxic chemical residue. 

They also need safe water for irrigation. However, in many localities, it is a luxury.. There is no clean water for people and cattle, let alone clean water for irrigation.

Meanwhile, building large-scale intensive farming areas and high-technology agricultural production areas which can satisfy food safety international standards is one of the major points of a government-initiated program on restructuring agriculture. 

The government also wants to minimize the adverse effects on the environment caused by overexploitation and unreasonable use of resources for agriculture, forestry and fishery production.

According to the Water Resources Research Institute, agricultural restructuring in the Red River Delta will lead to changes in the demand for water use and drainage and the environment. 

There are big problems in the quality of the water in the delta’s irrigation works. The rivers which provide water for irrigation such as Nhue, Ngu Huyen Khe, Bac Hung Hai and Re have got seriously polluted which cannot provide water good enough for agriculture production.

Do Hai Dien, deputy director of the Nam Dinh provincial agriculture department, said that tens of thousands of hectares of agricultural land in the province have been affected by water pollution. 

This is attributed to the rapid development of craft villages and industrial zones. 

In Binh Yen aluminum recycling craft village, for example, people are earning high incomes thanks to aluminum recycling, but water at the local canals there are inky black. 

As a result, tens of thousands of hectares of land are being irrigated with unsafe water.

There in the village, large rice fields have been left uncultivated because rice cannot develop on polluted land.

The local authorities once applied wastewater treatment models that satisfied national environment standards. These included treating 10 cubic meters of wastewater a day, enough to treat wastewater discharged by three households. 

However, this must not be a long-term solution to settle pollution.

According to Nguyen Dinh Kinh, director of Bac Nam Ha Irrigation Works, there are too many sources of wastewater which bring pollutants to the canal system. 

These include Hoa Xa IZ in Nam Dinh province, Bao Minh IZ in Vu Ban district, An Ha IZ and craft villages in Y Yen district.

Thanh Mai