Thu Ha in Dai Mo Ward of Nam Tu Liem district said two years ago, as there was no tap water, she had to use water from a drilled well at the depth of 40 meter.
“The water was as black as coal and smelledjust like the sewage water. Though we filtered the water twice with a modern machine, we still felt insecure when using it,” she said.
Duc in Mo Lao Ward of Ha Dong district complained that the shop run by her family on Nhue riverside had no business because of bad odor from the river. Flies and mosquitoes also attack the shop which was the bread-earner of her family.
“It is really terrible. Garbage, flies, mosquitoes and bad odor surround us from all sides,” she said, adding that local families have been living in such conditions for years.
Duc still has to live there, but she decided to relocate the shop to another locality.
The Nhue River has been compared with a pit drain which causes serious pollution to the environment and adverse effects to the public. |
According to the Hanoi New Technology Development JSC, the river section in Co Nhue area got polluted because of untreated waste water from residential quarters which flowed directly to the river. Nhue has also been polluted by industrial waste water from factories and small production workshops in the area.
The tests all showed the environmental indicators higher than the permitted levels. The concentration of ammonia in river water is 21.5mg/l (215 times higher than the permitted level). Domestic sewage which accounted for 60 percent of the total volume of waste water in the region contain high levels of bacteria, nutrients and TSS, reducing 71 percent of H2O and NO3.
When will the river become clean?
Nguyen Tri Xuat, head of the Lien Mo Irrigation Center located next to the Doi Bridge on Nhue River, said the river is polluted seriously because local people on the river sides drop litter directly to the river. The waste water from handicraft villages such as Sau Gia, Cau Nga, Van Phuc Silk and Ha Dong Silk has also been poisoning the river.
Xuat admitted though the river water is polluted, it is still used for irrigation, because there is no other choice for farmers.
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