Green, pink, black wastewater
Reporting to Lao Dong Newspaper, many households in Mong Hoa Commune, Hoa Binh City expressed their indignation and anxiety when the Wood Processing Factory of Son Thuy Joint Stock Company (Mong Hoa Commune) discharged strangely colored wastewater into the environment.
Arriving at the scene on the afternoon of October 18, the group of reporters directly witnessed the waste discharge situation of this factory.
The waste dyed the canal pink and flowed straight into the fields and Bay Chau stream - where people in Ao Kenh and Dong Giang villages irrigate and cultivate.
Sharing with reporters, Mr. Nguyen Duc Theu - a resident of Mong Hoa commune - said: "The discharge has been going on for nearly a year now. Every early morning and afternoon or when it is about to rain, the factory starts discharging."
According to Mr. Theu, since this company discharged waste, the fish caught from the fields and ditches are inedible because they smell too bad.
Similarly, Ms. Nguyen Thi My Hung's family is also miserable because of this company's waste discharge.
Ms. Hung shared: "Wastewater is usually green, pink, or black. Some days it smells, some days it doesn't, but it has foam. For a long time, we didn't dare drink well water and had to buy water from the stream in Dong Giang village."
According to Ms. Hung, due to polluted wastewater, even if rice can be grown here, people do not dare to eat it. All the harvested rice can only be used to feed poultry.
"Even without gloves and boots, we dare not go into the fields. We have petitioned the authorities many times, but the situation remains the same," said Ms. Hung.
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tuan - Head of Dong Giang village - said that half of the wastewater flows into the stream and the other half flows into the fields of Dong Giang village. People are extremely worried that this situation will seriously affect the water source, health and farming area.
Detecting a series of business violations
On October 21, speaking with reporters, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc - Chairman of Mong Hoa Commune People's Committee confirmed that the pink wastewater was discharged into the environment by Son Thuy Joint Stock Company.
"Immediately after receiving the news, the leaders of the Commune People's Committee were present with the police force to make a record and take water samples to send to superiors for appraisal," said Mr. Phuc.
Regarding the people's complaints about pollution that were not handled or responded to, Mr. Phuc said that he did not know about this information before.
On the same day, a representative of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Hoa Binh City said that Hoa Binh City has just established a team to inspect the discharge of Son Thuy Joint Stock Company.
At the meeting, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Thuy - Director of the company said that the factory mainly produces wood presses, with a production capacity of 10,000m3/year. During the production process, no wastewater is generated. Wastewater is mainly generated from the daily activities of workers.
Regarding procedures and documents to meet environmental standards - at the time of inspection, the company had not yet presented a license to discharge wastewater into water sources; environmental quality monitoring results of the monitoring area of the enterprise's forest product processing factory.
In particular, at the time of inspection, this company had not arranged a temporary storage area for hazardous waste and did not collect and store hazardous waste according to regulations.
According to research, Son Thuy Joint Stock Company (Mong Hoa commune, Hoa Binh city) specializes in producing formwork plywood, plywood, plywood... The factory area is nearly 16 hectares with 180 workers.
