VietNamNet Bridge – The Nhue-Day flood basin is choked with waste and is struggling to cope with water being discharged in northern provinces, officials said.

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The 8,000-sq.km river basin is one of the largest floods plains in the country, taking water from Ha Noi and the provinces of Ha Nam, Ninh Binh, Nam Dinh and Hoa Binh.

Due to heavy pollution, rivers in the region can no longer be used to irrigate agricultural land.

Fish farming on the river has also suffered because of the pollution.

The river system takes in about 4 million cubic metres of waste water every day, said Dr Hoang Duong Tung, director of the Viet Nam Environment Administration's Monitoring Centre.

The majority of waste water comes from farmland and animal husbandry, with the remainder coming from households, factories and hospitals.

Ha Noi accounts for half of the waste water, with Nam Dinh and Ha Nam provinces contributing 18 and 15 per cent respectively.

In all, more than 4,000 factories in eight industrial parks together with 450 craft villages discharge waste water into the rivers.

In addition, inadequately treated waste water from millions of people living in the basin is discharged into the river basin.

The need to clean up the Nhue-Day River is urgent, the Viet Nam Environment Administration said.

The river network can no longer cope with the amount of effluent being discharged into the waterways, the agency said.

It said polluting firms were not being monitored closely enough and that fines were not being meted out.

Huge investment is needed to build much-needed waste treatment facilities, the agency said.

Money needs to be spent on a sewerage system and waste treatment plants. The river needs to be dredged and its embankments reinforced. There is also a need for more rubbish dumps, it said.

The Committee for the Protection of the Environment in the Nhue-Day River Basin was established just one year ago.

The Ministry of Natural Re sources and Environment has twice inspected 135 industrial plants based in the basin. More than 100 of them were found to be violating environmental rules. They were fined a total of VND1.8 billion (US$90,000).

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News