Dong Nai Province’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment said the water dumped by Vedan, although now treated after the MSG maker set up a treatment plant, did not fully meet environmental standards.
Six months after being hauled up for releasing untreated waste into the Thi Vai River, Taiwanese-invested monosodium glutamate maker Vedan is at it again, dumping more waste water into the river, which is struggling to recover its environmental health.
Besides Vedan, a thousand other factories and companies along the river continue to dump their untreated waste water into the river.
It is a fact that after Vedan was fined for polluting the river, the water quality improved. But there is a long way to go before the river recovers its health.
"If all factories along the river stopped discharging waste water, the river would need seven to 10 years to recover," Dr Le Huy Ba of the
"To get rid of all its pollution, we have to dredge the river bed," he added.
It is easy to see the black waste water from industrial zones, factories and enterprises being dumped into the river, especially at Lo Ren drain which carries waste water from the Nhon Trach Industrial Zone.
Different colours
The river is of different colours on different days depending on what kind of waste water the factories dump. Most fish, crabs and shrimps cannot survive in its polluted water that thousands of fishermen have had to seek other occupations.
Nearly 40km of the river is now seriously polluted, with a 15-km stretch unable to sustain any life. Vedan is thought to be the main cause of this malaise, releasing more than 5,000cu.m of untreated waste water and 1,500cu.m of fermented molasses waste into the river every day.
To improve the situation, Le Van Binh, deputy director of Dong Nai’s Environmental Techniques and Measurement Centre, called for stopping the discharge of untreated waste water into the river by factories.
"If we are not able to better manage the quality of waste water, pollution will increase," he warned.
Le Van Duc, deputy chief inspector of the province’s Natural Resource and Environment Department, said: "Dong Nai is determined to punish all enterprises that cause pollution but it is not easy to fine them." Authorities’ hands used to be tied because they had to inform the factories one week in advance to inspect them, he explained.
"The most important thing is that the Department has only two inspectors and they can’t inspect the thousands of enterprises in the province," he added.
(Source: VNS)
