Da Nang needs long-term vision for wastewater treatment

For many years, the people in An Khe ward of Thanh Khe district have been living with the bad odor from the Phan Lang Canal which is full of garbage and black water. The conditions are serious in the lower course of the canal, from Ho Tuong street to the overpass.

Ngo Thi Tuoi, a local woman, complained that the situation has not improved in 11 years. “Fish die en masse. Garbage is everywhere. Residents are attacked by flies and mosquitos,” she said.

The other canals of Da Nang City, including Yen The – Bac Son, Da Co and Khe Can, are also seriously polluted because there is still no system which collects rainwater and waste water. 

Of the ‘hot spots’, the canal through Thanh Khe ward of Thanh Khe district is the most serious, with fish dying en masse in summer. 

According to Mai Ma, director of the Da Nang Water Supply & Drainage, the company controls 19 drainage canals in the city with the total length of 17 kilometers. However, only three canals have waste water collection and treatment systems.

Put into operation in 2000, the city’s waste water treatment concentrated system is 15 years old. As urbanization continues, the old system has become overloaded. 

As a result, waste water usually gets stuck or goes directly to canals, rivers and the sea without treatment. 

A report from the city’s environment department showed that the urban waste water volume is approximately 900,000 cubic meters a day, while the total capacity of waste water treatment stations is 284,300 cubic meters. The existing system can handle 31.58 percent of the total waste water volume.

As waste water volume keeps increasing, Da Nang has repeatedly upgraded the capacity of stations, but the situation has not changed a lot. 

Da Nang’s Mayor Huynh Duc Tho admitted that the city’s waste water volume has increased proportionally with the urbanization rate an much more rapidly than forecasted.

“Da Nang is facing many environmental problems. Any rain, including light rain, will also produce bad odors in coastal areas. The waste water collection and treatment system has become overloaded,” he said.
 
In early 2018, Da Nang started the second phase of the Hoa Xuan Waste Water Treatment Plant to increase its capacity to 40,000 cubic meters a day. It is expected that in the next stage, the capacity would be raised to 120,000 cubic meters.

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