HCM City authorities have urged local agencies to work more closely with
the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to curb the rising
levels of air and water pollution in HCM City.
Pham
Van Dong, head of the Economic and State Budget Division of the city
People's Council, said the department must co-operate with neighbouring
provinces, such as Dong Nai and Binh Duong, in its battle to reduce
pollution.
Speaking at a meeting on Oct. 20, Dong said the
department must submit by November 5 a detailed report on pollution
data, the relocation of polluting companies, and waste treatment systems
in industrial parks and hospitals.
At the meeting, the
department reported that seven of 37 companies ordered to move to
outlying areas of the city in 2003 because of excessive pollution had
not relocated.
Of the seven companies, five were expected to relocate by the end of this year.
The city's canals, especially those used for irrigation, are severely
polluted because of wastewater released from companies and industrial
parks, according to the department.
Test results of water
quality showed that several sections of B, C and An Ha canals near Tan
Phu Trung Industrial Park and Phuoc Hiep Rubish Dump had
Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5) and
coliform that far exceeded permitted levels.
The
department said the city's hospitals and clinics discharged a total of
23,000cu.m of waste a day and only 49 of 113 hospitals and clinics had
standard wastewater treatment systems.
Nguyen Van Phuoc,
deputy director of the department, said the city's 15 industrial parks
and export processing zones had consolidated wastewater treatment
systems.
However, at the Tan Phu Trung Industrial
Park alone, companies have not connected their wastewater treatment
facilities to the industrial parks' treatment system, and many companies
have released untreated wastewater directly into Tham Luong Canal
.
Near the Tan Phu Trung Industrial Park , there
were several industrial parks in Tay Ninh Province that did not
treat wastewater properly, he said.
The department is
calling for investment from private investors to help finance waste
treatment systems for the 20 hospitals in HCM City without
treatment facilities.
Since June 2009, the city has fined
155 companies a total of 3.2 billion VND (160,000 USD) for discharging
untreated wastewater into the environment, according to the city's
Environment Police Division./.
