VietNamNet Bridge – Household waste dumped by fisherman is polluting many small islands and beaches located on Con Dao District of the southern coastal province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

Household waste is polluting many small islands and beaches located on Con Dao District, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province. — Photo tuoitre.vn

All types of rubbish from life preservers, bottles, shoes, dry tree branches and bamboo has filled Dong beach, one of the most heavily polluted areas in Con Dao. The garbage is stuck in rocks or covered under the sand.

A worker at a nearby construction site said that the locals usually go to the beach to collect thrown-away garbage which can be recycled.

He said that there is also rubbish with oil such as oil-contained tins.

Bay Canh, an islet famous for turtles' egg laying, is also stuffed with difficult-to-dispose trash such as glass bottles or torn nets.

Nguyen Van Anh, who temporarily takes over as head of Bay Canh Forest Ranger Department, estimated that the amount of rubbish there weighs hundreds of cubic metres.

Sea currents bring rubbish to the beaches along with sea currents, following northeast and southwest wind seasons, he said.

Besides their main duty, forest rangers have to remove waste as an additional task, Anh said.

Nguyen Khac Pho, deputy director of Con Dao National Park, said that every year on World Environment Day, which falls on June 5, the park staff and local authorities clean up the beaches but they still can not remove a huge amount of waste.

On behalf of local authorities, Nguyen Thanh Chinh, chairman of Con Dao District's People's Committee, acknowledged the pollution, adding that authorised forces are not able to treat massive amounts of waste.

Particularly, Con Dao has been attacked by waste for years but this fact has yet to be reported to authorities at a higher level. A provincial environmental officer was surprised to know about the contamination, Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reported.

According to the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the management board of public construction sites collect about 10 tonnes of trash in the district every day. Currently the waste burning heater can destroy only 5 tonnes of trash per day.

The untreated waste is gathered at a waste dump with containing capacity of roughly 60,000 cubic metres. When it is rainy, the liquid from the waste dump flows directly to and pollutes Bai Nhat beach.

Preventing trash from being brought by wind seasons is impossible, said Le Tan Cuong from the provincial Environment Protection Department, warning that increasing amounts of accumulated trash will pose threats to the environment, in particular, ocean eco-tourism is expected to be developed in Con Dao.

According to Bui Hoai Nam, deputy head of Institute for Environmental Science under Viet Nam Environment Administration, if the household waste, including hard-to-dispose solid rubbish, is not timely collected, it will consequently poison aquatic and marine animals as well as coastal fishing areas, and degrade important coastal bio-systems such as coral reefs, rare sea animals, turtles' laying places.

He also emphasised that the pollution may affect negatively on the beaches' beauty.

VNS