Environment ministry to check all major waste discharge sources to rivers

By Toan Dao   May 7, 2016 | 05:06 pm PT
Environment ministry to check all major waste discharge sources to rivers
Mass fish death in Buoi River in Thanh Hoa province. by Le Hoang
Vietnam authorities have requested local governments to monitor major sources discharging waste to the sea and rivers while the cause for the mysterious mass fish deaths along the central coast remains unknown.

According to a statement released May 6, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment expects to receive results from their checks within this month. 

The move is to respond to three incidents reported by local media earlier this week, the statement said.

Local residents in Thach Lam commune in the central province of Thanh Hoa discovered the dead fish floating in the Buoi river on May 4, and said the water had turned a muddy blue color and started to smell. A representative from a sugar plant upstream, located in Hoa Binh northern province, has admitted the factory discharged unprocessed wastewater to the river.

Further south to the central province of Quang Ngai, polluted freshwater source is the prime suspect for cancer, which has caused death to hundreds of residents in the Phuoc Thien village, Binh Hai commune, Binh Son district, since 2000.

Even in Hanoi downtown, water from the Ngoc Khanh lake in Ba Dinh district has begun to smell since early April this year.

Since early April, about 70 tons of fish have washed up dead in the central coastal provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien - Hue. On April 27, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment said there are two possible reasons for the mass fish deaths.

One is toxic chemicals released by human activities. The other is an abnormal natural phenomenon that causes algae in the water to bloom at an accelerated rate, commonly known as a “red tide”.

 
 
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