The alarm bell over the pollution of craft villages in Hanoi has been rung over the last many years. However, the city’s authorities have not found the proper solutions which can help eliminate the problem to the every root.

Duong Lieu craft village

Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department for Environment and Natural Resources, Pham Van Khanh ,said that the city has kicked off a lot of projects on dealing with the pollution in craft villages, but stressed that the problems cannot be settled overnight

Violent criticism targeting local authorities has been raised every time when research institutes release the reports on the environment protection.

The latest survey conducted by the Hanoi University of Technology shows that 100 percent of the samples of waste water taken from craft villages have the toxic concentrations higher than the allowed levels. Both surface and underground water have been polluted. None of the craft village has been found as satisfying the requirements on environment protection stipulated by the environment protection law.

In craft villages, the percentages of people infected with serious diseases, including cancer, tend to increase. The average life expectancy of local residents tends to decrease, which is now 10 years lower than the average life expectancy in Vietnam.

Khanh said that eliminating pollution in craft villages has always been one of the priority tasks of the local authorities. The city has kicked off a lot of big projects, especially the ones on treating waste water. These include the one on building the Cau Nga concentrated waste water system, the one on building a waste water treatment system for craft villages with the capacity of 10,000-12,000 cubic metres per day.

Besides, the city’s authorities have also been speeding up the priority projects on environment protection in craft villages slated for the period from now to 2010.

According to Khanh, once the projects complete, they will help protect the water sources and improve the waste water in the craft villages of Cat Que, Duong Lieu, Minh Khai in Hoai Duc district, and Tan Hoa village in Quoc Oai district, before the waste water is discharged to the Nhue and Day rivers.

No way-out found

However, Professor Dr Dang Kim Chi, Chairwoman of the Vietnam Association for Environment Protection, said that the feasibility of the above said projects would still depend on other factors, including the investment capital, techniques and the land fund reserved for the treatment systems.

According to Chi, the projects have suitable technologies, but it will be costly to run the treatment systems. Most of the projects have big investment capital which needs to have regular maintenance services.

Chi said she knows many projects which were recognised as having high quality after the installation was completed. However, the waste water treatment systems have been left idle, because they quickly got broken down just after a short period of use.

Chi stressed that there’s a principle that needs to be followed that “prevention is better than cure”. The local authorities should program the development of craft villages and request to strictly follow the requirements on the environment protection, rather than gathering strength on settling consequences.

She also said that the pollution of craft villages can only be settled with the cooperation of many relevant agencies, not only from the Hanoi authorities alone.

Local authorities of many provinces said that they have planned to relocate production workshops in order to ease the pollution. However, no one can say for sure when the plans get approval. And while waiting for the plans to be approved, local residents still have to “live together with the pollution.”