The dam collapse of the Bac Kan Nonferrous Metal Company in Ban Thi commune caused more than 1,000 tons of mud containing lead and zinc ore to spill into the environment. The incident seriously affected the ecosystem and threatened the lives of hundreds of households in the two provinces of Tuyen Quang and Bac Kan.
More than a month after the dam break, the lives of the people of Ban Nhuong village, Ban Thi commune, have not yet stabilized. In addition to the damage to property and crops, people are also worried about the long-term threat to the environment, especially the quality of water sources.
According to PV, in late October, hundreds of workers of Bac Kan Non-ferrous Metal Company were still fixing the problem. Stretching from the foot of the dam to the stream bank in Ban Thi commune, workers dredged mud into sacks and transported it to the staging area.
A worker said that the workload was so large that everyone had to work continuously. The sludge spilled over a large area, making it very difficult to collect. In particular, a large amount of sludge sank into the streambed, and it took a long time to fix. It was very difficult to collect all the sludge spilled into the environment.
According to Mr. Nguyen Dinh Hoang - Director of Bac Kan Non-ferrous Metal Company Branch, every day the unit mobilizes from 100 to 250 workers and machines to fix the problem. Priority is given to using machines to collect waste sludge. Any location that cannot use machines will be done manually.
"At the stream bed locations, we will use suction machines to collect the mud. Then we will transport it to the truck to take it to the collection site. In Tuyen Quang province alone, the unit will assign about 30 workers to collect the waste mud here.
Currently, the work volume has reached about 80%. The unit is trying to complete the treatment of the sludge on the surface by October 2024. Since the dam break incident, the company has stopped production and business activities to focus on fixing the problem," said Mr. Hoang.
Speaking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Khong Thanh Tiem - Chairman of Ban Thi Commune People's Committee assessed that the broken ore sludge dam was a serious environmental incident. It is expected that the waste cleanup will take until the end of 2024 to complete.
"After the incident, the locality coordinated with the sludge collection company to support the people. In addition to calculating the damage, there are still hundreds of workers continuing to collect sludge.
However, it is very difficult to completely handle the sludge mixed in the soil and under the stream bed," the leader added.
After the dam break, the Ministry of Health supported testing the quality of domestic water in Binh Phu commune (Chiem Hoa, Tuyen Quang) with 8 group A parameters and 29 group B metal and microbiological parameters to assess the risk of heavy metal contamination from ore processing water.
The results showed that 10/10 water samples did not meet the National Technical Regulation QCVN 01-1:2018/BYT on the quality of clean water used for domestic purposes in terms of physical-chemical and microbiological parameters.
