A major industrial wastewater treatment plant in Vietnam’s southern province of Dong Nai has been caught red-handed discharging untreated wastewater into the Dong Nai River, seriously polluting the environment. The plant managed by Sonadezi Long Thanh JSC is estimated to discharge 9,300cu.m of untreated industrial wastewater into the river via three underground pipelines, the Environmental Police Department (C49) said. The C49 group found the wastewater treatment system was out of order and the untreated wastewater from 42 companies in Long Thanh Industrial Park was being discharged into the river. The wastewater from such local enterprises is first stored in a reservoir with a volume of 35,000 cubic meters. The reservoir was connected to three underground pipelines. Each was 600 meters long and 30 centimeters in diameter, and about two to three meters underground. The untreated wastewater flowed from the reservoir through the pipelines to the Ba Cheo canal and then into Dong Nai river. During the last five years, Sonadezi has been fined a total VND140 million for dumping its untreated wastewater into the Dong Nai River, posing a great threat to the environment and human health, C49 added. Sonadezi representatives admitted their wrongdoings and the case in under further investigation, the police investigative unit said. Earlier, Vedan Vietnam was caught and later heavily fined for discharging untreated wastewater into Thi Vai River in southern Dong Nai province, causing serious pollution and financial losses to thousands of local households in Dong Nai and Ba Ria-Vung Tau provinces and HCM City for years. Dong Nai River is facing severe pollution by a large amount of volumes of untreated industrial and household wastewater being dumped into it. Up to 1.8 billion cubic meters of industrial and domestic wastewater are being discharged into the river per day, but only 240,000 cubic meters are properly treated, experts noted. (Vietnam News Aug 6, Lao Dong – Labor Aug 8, cafef.vn Aug 8)
