Pollution soon to render Dong Nai River unusable

For decades, ‘development’ has meant allowing industrial parks to discharge untreated wastewater directly into millions of local residents’ water supplies. The Dong Nai River supplies water to some 15 million people in southern Vietnam, but that has not stopped callous companies from dumping so much toxic sludge in the river that scientists say it will soon be too poisonous to use. “Tests since 2006 have found pollution near the Hoa An Pump Station has increased to serious levels with an especially high concentration of organic [toxic] substances,” said Truong Khac Hoanh, vice director of Thu Duc Water Supply Company in Ho Chi Minh City. “With such an increase in pollution, this water supply will soon be unusable,” he said. A top official at the Binh An Water Plant in HCMC also said the Dong Nai would soon be like its tributary the Thi Vai, where aquatic life can’t survive due to the high levels of pollution. The official blamed the large and rapidly-growing number of industrial parks along the river, as well as boats and households that also dump their waste and trash in the waterway. …