VietNamNet Bridge – Addressing environmental pollution is one of their major tasks in the next five years and they have already taken many measures to check pollution, HCM City authorities have said.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) said the city has almost completed the task of setting up facilities for handling solid waste and is gradually using advanced technologies to convert garbage into compost and electricity.

The City has also worked with neighbouring provinces like Binh Duong, Tay Ninh, Long An, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau to tackle pollution, controlling pollutants discharged into the Sai Gon and Vam Co Dong Rivers and cleaning up the Ba Bo Canal it shares with Binh Duong.

"The goal for end-2015 is to be able to collect, store, and treat all solid waste as well as medical and toxic waste," a DNRE official said.

By then, the City also hopes to have wastewater treatment systems in all industrial parks, export processing zones, and small industrial and handicrafts clusters.

People's Committee standing vice chairman Nguyen Thanh Tai said in tackling environmental degradation and pollution, the City faced several challenges in terms of management and facilities.

The city would need to build more treatment facilities for industrial and other hazardous wastes.

Pollution is worsening at the Le Minh Xuan Industrial Park in the outlying Binh Chanh District where polluters have relocated from the City centre.

District authorities have said that 30 canals are severely contaminated, affecting the lives and production activities of local residents.

Other hotspots that discharge massive volumes of untreated wastewater are Tan Phu Trung IP in Tan Binh District and Linh Trung III EPZ in Thu Duc District.

An example of serious pollution in HCM City is along the Ba Bo Canal located between Thu Duc District and Binh Duong Province's Thuan An District.

People living along the canal, where a VND744 billion ($37.2 billion) wastewater treatment facility is under construction, are contracting respiratory and skin diseases, and even cancer.

The facility should have been completed last September, but work has been delayed and the new completion date is not known.

Nguyen Thi Lan, a resident of Binh Chieu Ward in Thu Duc District, said factories near industrial parks secretly dump untreated wastewater at night.

"Previously, the foam in the canal used to be small but now 10m masses can be seen every morning from the foot of the bridge on inter-provincial No 43."

Huynh Thanh Nha, deputy head of the HCM City Division of Environmental Protection, said tests in the Canal last January found that the situation had yet to improve.

"The canal is again being heavily re-polluted," he said.

Surface pollution has also been occurring at an alarming level in the Sai Gon, Dong Nai, and Thi Vai Rivers, threatening the operation of the Thu Duc and Tan Hiep water treatment plants.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News