WATER POLLUTION IN VIETNAM

In 2008, Vedan factory, a foreign company, released their industrial untreated wastewater to Thi Vai River caused fishes and biology system in the river to die, and make Thi Vai become a dead river. In 2010, people in a small village in Thai Nguyen sue a fertilize factory because most people in that village get cancer, and they suspect that the reason is from the water, and that factory pour wastewater to the river. There is many rivers in Vietnam are suffering very bad pollution, and two reasons result in this water pollution are: wastewater from factories, and garbage from citizens.

The main reason that make river pollute seriously is the releasing untreated water from factories into river. Most of the companies don’t have the wastewater treatment system, and many industrial zones in Vietnam don’t have plant for treating water before throw out to the river. Because of the high cost to invest a wastewater treatment system in comparison with the small amount of money they can be fined due to the law of Vietnam if the government detect that they pour wastewater to the environment, many companies choose to pollute the environment and be fined an a amount of money to do that. In case of Vedan factory above, Thi Vai becomes a dead river for many years until now, even though it is recovering, however, the recovery is very slow. The consequence from that water pollution in Thi Vai River is huge. People live near that river (include 3 provinces: Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai and Ba Ria – Vung Tau) were affected on many aspects. Polluted water afftects their health because people use water from that river for their daily activities. Moreover, their economy is also affected, for example, people use water for agriculture, and people who live by fishing. It takes many years for Thi Vai River to recover. However, Vedan was fined only 6 millions dollar for 14 years (from 1994 to 2008) released polluted water to Thi Vai River. This is a small amount if we it compare to the cost they have to spend to treat the wastewater in 14 years. In the second story, people from that village lost because there was not enough evidences that proving people get cancer because of using water. In both cases, people and environment were affected seriously.

A second reason that pollutes water is coming from citizens. Garbage from households was thrown into the river because at some place, there is no system to treat the garbage. Moreover, it also comes from people mind, many people want to save money, and so they choose not to treat or recycle trash. The  images below are common in residential areas. 

Polluted water result in the serious effect to people, especially to their health. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment state that almost 80% of the diseases in Vietnam are caused by polluted water. There are many cases of cholera, typhoid, dysentery and malaria each year in the country. There are many solutions to improve the environment in Vietnam. One of the main tasks for Vietnam government is change the law to prevent factories from leasing wastewater to the river. The government should pay attention to invest trash treatment system at residential area, and educate citizen to protect the environment.