Industrial parks nationwide discharge more than a million cubic metres of wastewater each day, 75 percent of which is untreated and harmful, according to a workshop held in Hanoi on December 1.

The workshop on sustainable development was organised by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and the Vietnamese Ministry of Science and Technology.

At the event, the Division for Water Resources Planning and Investigation for the Central Region of Vietnam reported that up to 57 percent of the industrial zones are operating without centralised wastewater treatment systems, resulting in air pollution in surrounding areas.

Another problem lies with shortcomings in the collection and treatment of industrial solid waste, despite the increasing amount of the wastewater, the report pointed out.

Outcomes of Vietnam’s relevant research studies were presented at the workshop, including a project on clean energy carried out by the University of Natural Sciences under the Hanoi National University.

Vietnam houses more than 200 industrial parks across the country, with most of them having no sustainable wastewater treatment solutions.

By 2011, only 143 out of 232 industrial parks nationwide had been equipped with wastewater treatment systems and 30 were building wastewater treatment facilities.

Untreated wastewater has spilled into rivers and streams along the industrial parks, triggering serious environmental pollution.

Rivers such as Nhue and Cau in the northern region and Dong Nai in the southern region have become seriously polluted.

Given this , the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research has funded a project on industrial wastewater treatment in Vietnam (AKIZ), which is being piloted in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho.

The city’s Tra Noc Industrial Zone has been chosen to be the first place to apply the recommendations on wastewater and sludge treatment, reuse and potential to produce energy.

VNA