VietNamNet Bridge – The Nha Trang bay now has to receive the untreated waster discharged from sewers without treatment every day. Scientists have warned about the biological imbalance at the bay. Especially, the blue tide which brings unpleasant smells has made many people hesitant to go bathing.

Discharging untreated waste to the sea

Dr Nguyen Tac An, former Director of Nha Trang Institute of Oceanography, Chairman of the National Committee on Oceanography of Vietnam, said that since 1978, since he moved to settle in Nha Trang City, he has been bathing in Nha Trang sea every morning.

“The number of people bathing in the sea has been increasing rapidly, while the sea water has become more turbid, and the volume of rubbish in the sea water has increased rapidly,” An said. The analyses of sea water conducted by the Nha Trang Institute of Oceanography showed the growing microbial organic percentage.

If walking on Pham Van Dong Boulevard, along the Nha Trang coastal line, one could breathe the unpleasant smell from a series of sewers which discharge untreated waste water to the sea. There are three or four sewers on the 1-kilometer stretch of road from Hon Chong to Ba Lang alone. Meanwhile, a deep pitch-black lake has taken shape from the sewer system at the T-junction of Dang Tat and Pham Van Dong Roads which discharges waste water to the sea

Except several big hospitals and hotels which have interior waste water treatment systems, other production workshops, homes and agencies discharge water to the city’s sewer system which then carries the untreated water to the river and then to the sea.

Nguyen Van Dam from the Khanh Hoa provincial water supply and drainage company, said that most of the waste water is going directly to the sea. Especially, the sewers along the Pham Van Dong road have most affected people, while the remaining waste water is going to the rivers of Tac and Quan Truong.

The blue tide

Dr Le Nhu Hau from the Nha Trang Research Institute of technological applications, said that there is too much organic waste, which inevitably leads to the sharp increase of organic proportion in the sea water. The blue tide is a phenomenon that can prove the phenomenon.

The blue tide mostly occurs in the months from April to June, in the dry season. During that time, the rainfall is low, while the organic amount is denser, and green seaweed grows rapidly and dies, which all cause the blue tide. Pham Van Dong Road, especially the area near the Hon Chong tourist attraction, proves to be the place which most suffers from the blue tide. As some types of seaweed grows strongly, it scrambles for oxygen with other kinds of plantations, thus causing biological imbalance.

“If the organic and rubbish pollution continues, no one would come to Nha Trang to have bathing in the sea one day,” An has warned.

He said that a lot of tourists heard about the microorganism in the sea water, and they tried to go to farer islands to have nothing. Nowadays, only local residents have coastal bathing.

Nguyen Van Thanh, Director of the Nha Trang Tourism Information Center, has admitted that the unpleasant smell and the changed color of the sea water has affected the bathing of tourists.

In fact, the city authorities have been applying drastic measures to clean the Nha Trang sea water. Especially, since 2007, under the project on improving the environment of Nha Trang City which uses the loans from the World Bank, a lot of sewer systems have been installed. However, waste water still has been discharged to the sea without treatment.

According to Ly Ngoc Dung, Director of the project management unit, due to the lack of capital, the implementation of a lot investment items have been delayed.

Source: SGTT