Sam Son, the most popular beach in the northern central province of Thanh Hoa, is facing serious pollution due to sewage outlets from surrounding residential areas.

Currently, there are five drains located along Ho Xuan Huong Street that directly discharge waste into the sea.

The sewage drains running into Sam Son Beach

Nguyen The Anh, a tourist from Hanoi, said that he had moved away from the drains to avoid the dirty water. Sam Son Beach has faced increasingly serious pollution.

Van Dinh Trung, head of Sam Son Township’s Urban Management Unit, admitted the pollution. "The repair of Ho Xuan Huong Street has caused residential areas along the street to be lower than the road surface. We have to let the sewage drains flow directly into the sea so that the areas are not submerged during the rainy season," Trung explained.

Sam Son Beach faces pollution

Sam Son Township now has only one pumping station to pump sewage from the township, while the locality has seen a sharp rise in the number of hotels and restaurants.

To deal with the problem, Sam Son authorities have asked the provincial people's committee to build two more sewage pumping stations with a total investment of VND190 billion (USD9 million). The stations will pump water into reservoirs for treatment before being discharged into the Do River.