The Nhue River is a branch of the Red River that flows through Hanoi and the city’s neighboring province of Ha Nam.
In Hanoi, the river runs 62 km long through the eight districts of Bac Tu Liem, Nam Tu Liem, Ha Dong, Thanh Tri, Thanh Oai, Thuong Tin, Phu Xuyen, and Ung Hoa.
The main task of the river is to drain wastewater for Hanoi's inner city and provide water for agricultural production outside Vietnam’s capital.
According to test results announced by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in 2020, the Nhue River has the poorest water environment quality among northern Vietnam’s five river basins.
Of the 185 monitoring points in the five basins, there are 15 “pollution points,” with the river alone accounting for 13 of the “hot-spots.”
A section of the river in Ha Dong District’s Phuc La Ward.
This section is polluted by collections of domestic wastewater from Ha Dong District and wastewater from production facilities and traditional craft villages in the area.
After that, the water continues to receive wastewater discharge from the To Lich River, worsening the overall pollution.
All parameters to measure water pollution in this section, including chemical oxygen demand (COD), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and ammonium, an inorganic nitrogen compound, exceed the prescribed threshold.
The river section flowing through Thuong Phuc Village in Thanh Tri District’s Ta Thanh Oai Commune, more than 20 km upstream of central Hanoi, is covered with mud for nearly 10 kilometers.
The water here is blackish and foul-smelling.
The river bank in Thuong Phuc Village, Ta Thanh Oai Commune is silted up and locals have taken advantage of it to grow vegetables and raise chickens.
A pumping station drains wastewater from the city through a pipe connected directly to the river without any filtration system.
Along both sides of the river through Ta Thanh Oai, garbage is dumped haphazardly while wastewater from households, factories and craft villages flows directly into the waterway.
A dead fish on the river flowing through Sieu Quan Village in Ta Thanh Oai. The Nhue River has effectively run out of such larger fish for decades now.
The scene stands in stark contrast to about 30 years ago when the water of the Nhue River was crystal green in the dry season and turned red with alluvium in the rainy season, during which the flow was strong and the river was filled with fish, shrimp, clams and mussels.
Ky, 73, catches “tank-cleaning fish” from the river to feed bigger fish on his farm.
“The river used to be clean and I could swim in it,” he said.
Local people hang out by the river bank in Thuong Phuc Village, Ta Thanh Oai Commune.
To gradually clean the Nhue River, Hanoi has approved a VND4 trillion (US$163 million) project to pump upstream water from the Red River into the Nhue River to improve water quality.
