Dirty groundwater threatens City
18:13' 20/02/2009 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge - Groundwater in Ho Chi Minh City, still used by many households for their daily needs, has become seriously contaminated due to a variety of reasons, according to the Preventive Medicine Centre.

Contaminated surface water percolating below the ground is one of the main reasons, experts say, blaming this on the poor environmental awareness among city citizens.

Besides, the Sai Gon, Dong Nai and Thi Vai rivers are becoming increasingly polluted, with the pollutants seeping into the water table around them.

The situation is similar in the areas near the Ba Bo Canal and Phuoc Hiep rubbish dump.

Another major reason for groundwater contamination is the seepage of untreated effluents discharged by factories.

Many plants in 12, Binh Tan, Cu Chi, Hoc Mon and Binh Chanh districts do not have wastewater treatment systems.

Tainted by effluent

Factories upstream of many of the city’s canals and rivers – in Tay Ninh, Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Long An provinces – release effluents into the water that taint the city’s groundwater.

Tests on water samples from 107 households in Districts 9, Thu Duc, Binh Chanh, Hoc Mon, Nha Be and Cu Chi districts found more than half of them containing pathogens like E.coli Coliform, and Coliform Faecal, which cause intestinal diseases.

The tests were performed by the Rural Environmental Hygiene and Water Centre and Preventive Medicine Centre.

"These microorganisms can damage people’s health. If people drink unboiled water, they are likely to get intestinal diseases," says the dean of community health section at the city’s Preventive Medicine Centre, Hoang Thi Ngoc Ngan.

The municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment warns that the quality of the second of three underground water layers has worsened because polluted surface water has seeped into it.

Wells situated near toilets, pigsties and polluted canals also carry pollutants into groundwater.

The two bottom water layers have not yet been contaminated but old wells are allowing waste to seep into them.

VietNamNet/VNS

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