VietNamNet Bridge – A lot of salangane keeping houses have arisen in the districts in the inner city of HCM City, which have caused the environment pollution and badly affected people’s health.

According to the HCM City Department for Agriculture and Rural Development, the city now only allows 100 households to breed salanaganes in the district of Can Gio. However, a lot of salangane keeping houses still have arisen spontaneously, while they have not been punished by any agencies.

Local dwellers “tortured” by the noise

Local residents in Binh Thanh district have been “tortured” by the noise from the salangane keeping houses. The loud cry all day long of the machines that generate the sounds to lure salanganes has upset the lives of local residents.

Nguyen Van Kha, a local resident, said that the machines run since 4 am and only stop late in the afternoon. It is the time when salanganes return home after a day of searching for food. They emit mixed sounds which stir up the whole residential quarter.

“We always have to close the doors to avoid the terrible sound. Meanwhile, the children complain they cannot sleep,” he said.

The owner of a tea shop on D5 road, complained that the cry of the salanganes and the machines make my headache disease get more serious. “I have lost a lot of customers. They cannot stay here for a long time because of the terrible noise,” he said.

There is a house that keeps salangane located in the residential quarter, besides the University of Transport. Students of the school complain that the house has made them suffer.

The households in the locality and the school have proposed the local authorities to remove the salangane keeping houses, because the houses have caused pollution. However, to date, no improvement has been made.

The households on D2 road of Binh Thanh district also said they are suffering from the two salanagane keeping houses. Though the number of salanganes kept is small, but salanganes’ guano has given terrible smell to the households nearby.

“I dare not go to the area because we fear we may tread on guano,” a local resident complained.

At a four-storey house on Vo Van Tan street in district 3, the upper part is being used to keep salanganes. At 4 pm everyday, the area gets noisy because salanganes return to their nests. “Salanganes fly in flocks, emitting nerve-racking noise. A lot of travelers, stay there to watch how salanganes fly because of the curiosity, while local residents said they have got too tired of the noise.

According to the HCM City Department for Agriculture and Rural Development, a lot of multi-storey buildings in the central area of the city are being used to keep salanganes. A lot of the houses have been keeping salanganes illegally.

Disease germs latent

Experts have warned that salangane keeping houses are the sources of disease germs. Local residents also said that they fear the epidemics may attack the residential quarters.

“We found a lot of birds lying dead on the ways and on the roofs. We reported about the death to the houses’ owners, but they never reported to the veterinary agencies,” said Le Xuan Hung, a local resident in Binh Thanh district.

Pham Xuan Thao, Head of the city’s Veterinary Department, said that the department has not discovered any cases where birds got infected with H5N1. However, he said that this does not mean that salanganes will not bring viruses to humans. He has agreed that it is necessary to take actions to prevent the epidemics.

“Keeping salanaganes without permission from competent agencies is illegal,” he said, calling for applying strict measures to stop this.

Source: Phap luat TPHCM