Over the last couple of years, Hanoi has made much effort to ease the pollution at its craft villages through incentives of capital, land and technologies.

90% of projects socialized

Hanoi is famous for its rich craft culture with some 1,350 craft villages, and is home to nearly one million laborers, 700,000 of whom are regular workers. This is an effective source of jobs.

On the other hand, these craft villages also are “hot spots” of pollution. It is estimated that every day, craft villages discharge hundreds of thousands of tons of solid waste and thousands of cubic meters of sewage, most of which are discharged directly to the environment.

The city's authorities are trying to solve pollution in craft villages, including a project issued last year on protecting the environment in those facilities. Many incentives such as a preferential loan policy have been applied to encourage advanced technologies to be funneled into the craft sector which is commonly considered outdated.  

Besides, the city aims to raise social funding for 90% of the projects in craft villages, attracting social funds in all related programs and set priority for environment-friendly ones.

Some notable environment projects include the dust-clearing project in wood craft village in Van Ha ward (Dong Anh district), sewage project in the cassava processing village in Tan Hoa ward (Quoc Oai district), a sewage treatment plant for the craft hub in Duong Lieu ward (Hoai Duc district), etc.

In 2018, the city targets to increasingly invest in, build and operate the pollution treatment system for 13 sorts of crafts ranging from food processing, tanning to livestock, etc.

Positive signs

Nguyen Dang Nam, director of Sunhouse factory in Ngoc Liep industrial cluster located in Quoc Oai district said that it is costly for a single enterprise to build a sewage treatment system. In 2002, Sunhouse faced many challenges, especially pollution, when starting its operation in Quoc Oai.

However, after being merged into Hanoi city, the district has formed Ngoc Liep industrial cluster and built a concentrated sewage treatment station, which favors the business environment. Currently, all 22 companies within the cluster enjoy a high-quality waste treatment system, Nam noted.

Pollution was seen as a stark problem in Hoai Duc district also. On average, Hoai Duc industrial and craft clusters discharge some 4.83 million cubic meters of sewage and around 125,068 tons of solid waste. The issue now sees its way out.

According to Vice Chairman of the Hoai Duc People’s Committee Nguyen Anh, the sewage treatment factory in Duong Lieu ward with capacity of  20,000 cubic meters per day has help much in solving the waste water for three wards of Duong Lieu, Cat Que, and Minh Khai.

Hanoitimes