VietNamnet Bridge - Hanoi has 1,350 craft villages, all of which create pollution, but there is only one professional waste treatment company.

Hanoi’s Vice Mayor Vu Hong Khanh admitted that the environmental problems in craft villages are ‘serious’ but the city still cannot allocate funds for the problem. 

While the state budget disburses money in dribs and drabs, it is nearly impossible to call for investment from the public.

“We have called for investment from domestic and foreign investors. But only one, Phu Dien Company, has accepted to invest money in a project on treating waste in craft villages,” Khanh said.

“The problem is that waste treatment requires huge capital, while the expected profit is modest,” he explained.

The only privately invested project is the one on building a waste water treatment project plant in Duong Lieu Commune of Hoai Duc District which has the capacity of 13,000 cubic meters a day.

The plant, once operational, slated for 2016, will treat waste water to be discharged from three communes of Cat Que, Duong Lieu and Minh Khai.

Meanwhile, the other waste treatment projects are still awaiting capital from the central government and city budgets.

According to Khanh, it is difficult to deal with the problem because of the small scale of the production workshops in craft villages, mostly household-run. 

Most of the workshops are located in residential quarters, with no systems of collecting and treating garbage, waste water and emission. 

Meanwhile, the household run production workshops don’t have waste treatment systems of their own, because the required investment capital for the systems is huge.

The city authorities are creating a craft village development plan by 2020, emphasizing that environmental protection will be a criterion to assess the development of craft villages.

The city authorities have decided that pollution in the most 50 seriously affected craft villages need to be settled by 2020.

In 2012, the city’s Department of Natural Resources and the Environment was asked to conduct surveys in 17 craft villages. The department, after the survey, decided to use suitable technologies in six villages to treat the waste water.

These include waste water treatment technology for cassava starch craft village in Tan Hoa Commune of Quoc Oai District, one on treating dust in the wooden furniture village in Van Ha Commune of Dong Anh District, and one on treating waste water with bioproducts in Bich Hoa Commune of Thai Oai District.

Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Bui Cach Tuyen last month said his ministry had found 104 most seriously polluted craft villages which need to be treated by 2020. 

Tien Phong