Local residents living along the Tien River, from the Dong Thap to Vinh Long and Tien Giang provinces have repeatedly complained about the pollution of the big river. The analysis of the surface water quality conducted by local environment departments has confirmed this.
According to Tran Thanh Thao, Deputy Director of the Tien Giang provincial healthcare department, it is a worrying problem that the Tien River is more seriously polluted, because most of the communicable diseases are caused by the under-standard water quality. Meanwhile, local residents still use the water from the river to wash and cook. At the riverbank markets, people even use the river’s water to wash fresh food.
The house of Nguyen Van Thu, 84, in Song Thuan commune in Chau Thanh district of Tien Giang province is located next to the Tien River. However, he said he cannot have a bath in the river or use the river’s water for washing.
“I can see the fat discharged from the cod liver oil and seafood processing factories which is floating on the river. The water looks clean, but you bath in it, you would break out in a rash. I watered by flowers with the Tien river’s water last Tet, and my flowers got spoiled,” he said.
Nguyen Van Tu, who has been fishing for the last 20 years on the Tien River, said that the amount of anchovy and small fish fry on the river has decreased sharply. Only the fishes that like eating fat can live on the polluted waters.
“The water here is dirty. I sometimes have stay under the water and I usually have an itch,” he said.
According to the Vinh Long and Tien Giang provincial environment departments, the SS, COD, BOD5 indexes all exceed the allowed levels.
Meanwhile, the observation at the 42 points on the Tien River in DongThap showed that all the important indexes were higher than the allowed level. For example, the oil index in late 2011 was 1-5.75 times higher than the allowed level. Coliform (intestinal bacteria) index was 100-1000 times higher. As for E. coli (intestinal bacteria), the index was 22-860 times. At some points on the Tien River, the observation noted the presence of plant protection drugs.
Too many “culprits”
According to Luu Minh Manh, Head of the Tien Giang Environment Sub-department, every day, the City of My Tho in Tien Giang province discharges no less than 50,000 cubic meters of domestic waste. Meanwhile, there has been no thorough survey about how much the toxic waste the domestic waste carry which can harm the water environment.
“There are many reasons behind the pollution. But local residents tend to blame this on the industrial zones,” Manh said.
Meanwhile, local residents in Tan Hong and Tam Nong districts of Dong Thap province have to “live together” with the polluted water caused by the waste water discharged from fish ponds. The environment sub-department in Tan Hong district has affirmed that most of the fish ponds owners refuse to treat the ponds as requested.
Meanwhile, experts have pointed out that the Tien River has got polluted also because of the waste water from the animal husbandry farms which are located outside industrial zones. State management agencies many times caught handed the discharging of untreated water to the river. Meanwhile, local residents have been using plant protection drugs spontaneously, including the ones banned by the state management agencies.
Under the current regulations, there must be waste treatment systems in industrial zones. Enterprises themselves also have to have waste water treatment systems themselves. Even urban areas also must treat waste water before the water goes to the river. However, the regulations have been ignored.