[enviro-vlc] Two waste-water plants to clean up four dirty rivers

[Vern Weitzel]

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/tech/2008/12/821172/

Two waste-water plants to clean up four dirty rivers
04:31' 30/12/2008 (GMT+7)

Dredging Kim Nguu River.

VietNamNet Bridge - Millions of people in Ha Noi will no longer face the health 
risks of four seriously polluted rivers in the city as construction of two major 
waste water treatment plants worth half a billion dollars will kick off soon.

The two waste water plants have the capacity to treat more than 350,000cu.m of 
waste water in the rivers of Lu, Set, To Lich and Kim Nguu, said the city’s 
Construction Department on Thursday.

According to the joint consultant teams comprising experts from Nippon Koei of 
Japan and the Viet Nam Water and Environment Joint Stock Company (VIWASE), the 
Yen Xa Plant will be built on 13ha in Yen Xa Village, the city’s outlying Thanh 
Tri District, capable of treating around 270,000cu.m per day.

Meanwhile, the Phu Do Plant will be built on about 6ha in Phu Do Village in Tu 
Liem District and it will be able to process 84,000cu.m of waste water per day.

They proposed that the construction, which is estimated to cost VND10 trillion 
(US$571.4 million) in total, should be carried out in two phases with the first 
phase scheduled to be completed in 2015 before becoming fully operational in 2020.

Building the two waste water treatment plants are imperative because up to 90 
per cent of 450,000-500,000cu.m of untreated waste water per day is dumped 
directly into these rivers, said Nguyen Le, general director of the Ha Noi Water 
Drainage Company.

Serious pollution

The largest worry is that most of the toxic waste water is from 400 factories in 
industrial zones, 15,000 manufactories in craft villages and 36 hospitals of the 
city.

Ha Noi currently has four sewage plants with a total capacity of 48,500cu.m per 
day, treating a mere tenth of the discharged waste water.

All this leads to serious pollution in inner city’s rivers.According to the 
latest report made by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resource, the 
discharged water is seriously polluted with various toxic chemicals including 
sodium, detergent, turpentine and artificial colours.

It also found that COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand – the amount of oxygen consumed 
in water) and BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand – used to measure the amount of 
oxygen consumed by microbial oxidation, and which is best used to gauge water 
quality in rivers and lakes rich in organic matter) exceeds acceptable levels by 
nine times.

Officials also reported that inner city rivers were black with scum and sludge, 
were foul smelling and incapable of supporting life.

"We’ve got used to the terrible smell from To Lich River. So, no matter how much 
black the river is or how terrible the smell of the water, we’ve stopped 
complaining about it," said Le Van Hai, a resident in Cau Giay District.

"If there are more two sewage plants, I hope that the terrible situation will be 
solved," added Hai.

(Source: VNS)