VietNamNet Bridge – The Truong Giang River contains waste water from thousands of shrimp ponds in the coastal districts of Thang Binh and Nui Thanh in the central province of Quang Nam.

Quang Nam’s people rushed to hatch shrimp in 2013, when the white-legged shrimp price began escalating.

Thousands of shrimp ponds were created, which brought better lives to locals. However, the shrimp ponds have also made life worse.

Previously, shrimp farmers pumped water from the sea to the shrimp ponds. Three or four days later, the waste water, together with chemicals and residues of shrimp feed, was discharged back into the sea. After that, the sea water containing dissolved residue was pumped into shrimp ponds again.

Then farmers decided to discharge the waste water directly from shrimp ponds to the Truong Giang River.

Those who visit the areas can see thousands of water pipes lying on the ground which bring the waste water from shrimp ponds to Truong Giang, where the water turns black.

“In the past, Truong Giang’s water was very pure. We could use it for washing, bathing and cooking. But it has become muddy recently. Fish cannot live here anymore,” Le Van Hien, a fisherman in Tam Tien Commune of Nui Thanh District, complained.

“If the river continues to be contaminated, it will die soon,” he added.

Ngo Dinh Anh, 72, who has four shrimp ponds covering an area of one hectare, admitted that he knows the waste water would “drive Truong Giang to suicide”, but he has no other choice than discharging waste water into the river.

“All the people here earn their living by farming shrimp. And all of them discharge waste water into the river. What should I do? If we did not hatch shrimp, we would die of hunger,” Anh said.

Nguyen Giup, chair of Tam Tien Commune, said that Truong Giang receives waste water from thousands of shrimp ponds, and has become seriously polluted. In Tam Tien Commune alone, 300 households earn their living farming shrimp.

According to the official, the Quang Nam provincial authorities, in an effort to prevent the protective forest devastation to make room for shrimp ponds, reserved an area of 15 hectares for shrimp farming in Tam Tien Commune. However, the plan has not been implemented yet, for many reasons.

He explained that farmers would incur losses if they have to give up the existing shrimp ponds and resume aquaculture in the reserved area, because they still cannot recover investment capital on the existing ponds, while shrimp prices have decreased slightly.

NLD