Vietnam HCM City Plans VND16B for Automatic Industrial Wastewater Monitors

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City has demanded the city government to spend VND16 billion ($820,500) on equipping automatic wastewater monitors in centralized industrial parks (IPs). The move follows a series of environment pollution cases caused by firms in IPs nationwide, said an official from the municipal department. The monitors will help control the quality of industrial wastewater dumped by one hi-tech park, three export processing zones (EPZs) and ten IPs in the city for 24 hours per day, the Thoi Bao Kinh Te Sai Gon newspaper cited Tran Nguyen Hien as saying Aug 31. The devices will be installed at the outlet of each IP’s wastewater treatment systems, aiming to record and transfer data of the discharged wastewater, namely pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and total suspended solids (TSS) to control center at the department. As many as 32,000 cubic meters of industrial wastewater are being discharged into the environment a day, Hien said. Up to 70% of total daily wastewater from Vietnam IPs is discharged into environment without treatment, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s survey indicated. The ministry added it had asked investors of the IPs to build and complete centralized wastewater treatment systems by December otherwise they will be shut down. (Thoi Bao Kinh Te Sai Gon – Saigon Economic TimesAug 31 p3)