Locals in Da Nang's Lien Chieu District are calling upon authorities to investigate a nearby industrial park whom they have accused of polluting local rivers and damaging public health.
Last week, roughly 150 people gathered at the gates of Lien Chieu Industrial Park to voice concerns over the firm's environmental pollution record, reports Thanh Nien.
The park, which opened in 1998, currently houses facilities which produce rubber, metallurgy and packaging products. According to local residents, the park's wastewater pollution has killed all fish in the nearby Cau Trang River, and some even speculate that it may contribute to health problems among the local population.
“There has been an increase of people getting cancer around here,” Pham Ba Duong, a 67-year-old resident battling colorectal cancer, told Thanh Nien. “Does it have anything to do with the pollution?”
For its part, an unnamed Lien Chieu manager told officials that the park has a waste treatment plant, however the park's wastewater sometimes exceeds the treatment plant's capacity and the facility “cannot guarantee treatment quality”.
The treatment facility, which opened in 2009, is designed to handle 600-700 cubic meters of sewage a day. On some days, however, the plant will have to treat 1,000 cubic meters of sewage, according to the anonymous manager.
Deputy director Ho Truong Thanh Hai of Saigon-Da Nang Investment JSC, the company developing the industrial park, says another waste treament plant is in the works and will be operational by January 2017. In the meantime, the Da Nang People's Committee has ordered the city's environmental department to inspect the site by June 15.
[Photo via Bao Moi]
