Decades of living with polluted canals
Lao Dong Newspaper received feedback from people in Nam Giang town (Nam Truc district, Nam Dinh province) about the pollution of the canal in Van Chang craft village in the area.
As one of the famous mechanical craft villages in Nam Dinh, Van Chang Craft Village currently has up to 470 traditional mechanical craft households. Almost every household has a workshop for production. Therefore, this profession has contributed to improving the lives and income of Van Chang villagers. However, along with the development, the people here are facing the risks of environmental pollution.
According to the reporter of Lao Dong Newspaper, the canal section running through Van Chang village is only over 800m long but is a densely populated area, polluted, with a foul smell and foaming.
Mr. Doan Van Tiep (name changed), who lives next to the polluted canal, said: "The most difficult thing is when the water of a large river does not flow here, the canal is dry, the smell from the canal rises, making people extremely suffocate. Depending on each day, the color of the canal water changes color, some days it changes to thick moss green, some days it is black and foaming. The humid and polluted weather in the past few days has made us more uncomfortable."
Not only Mr. Tiep's family, many households living along the canal suffer from pollution from this canal every day. "The pollution situation on this canal has existed for decades. In addition to being a craft village but also a source of domestic wastewater for the villagers, pollution of the canal is even more difficult to overcome," said a resident in Van Chang craft village.
Drilling and cleaning to reduce pollution
Regarding the above issue, in an interview with Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Cao Xuan Nghi - Chairman of Nam Giang Town People's Committee (Nam Truc District) said that the canal running through Van Chang village has been polluted for a long time, and the local government has repeatedly stepped in to handle it. Regarding solutions to handle the pollution situation, the locality is currently only able to handle it initially by regularly mobilizing and organizing the clearance and dredging of canals to limit pollution.
"When there is no long-term solution, in the immediate future, the town regularly inspects and temporarily fixes the problem to reduce pollution for the people. Most recently, before Tet, we have organized 2 garbage collection and canal cleaning. At the same time, put up signs, propagate and mobilize people to dump garbage in the right place, especially in areas with many houses selling goods, absolutely do not dump garbage into the canal, if discovered, we will punish it according to regulations. In the long term, the locality hopes that all levels and sectors will pay attention and support technology as well as funding to completely handle the pollution situation in Van Chang canal", said the Chairman of Nam Giang Town People's Committee.
