A sludge treatment project worth VND500 billion in HCMC’s Binh Chanh District hasn’t even started almost 10 years on, due to slow site clearance and an incomplete 1/2000 land plan.

According to the city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the city each day discharges some 1,500 tons of household sludge and 120 tons of industrial mud. However, most of this mud is untreated and discharged into the environment.

“The mud has been randomly discharged around the city without proper treatment for nearly 30 years,” said Nguyen Trung Viet, head of the department’s Solid Waste Management Office.

Nguyen Trong Luyen, chairman of HCMC Urban Drainage Company, told the Daily on Monday that in 2002 the company was assigned to build a 40-hectare mud treatment plant in Binh Chanh District with a total construction budget of VND500 billion.

“It took until 2007 for the company to get the decision to receive the land and even now in 2011 Binh Chanh District has still to complete the site clearance and the 1/2000 land plan for us to build the mud plant,” said Luyen.

He said most of the mud discharged from households has been treated by very simple measures which involve water and hyacinth trees to deodorize the mud.

According to some environmental experts, beside household and industrial mud, the city also has millions of tons of mud discharged from the construction of large environmental projects around the city.

However, according to Viet, the mud from sanitation and environmental projects has been randomly discharged in Can Gio District without proper treatment.

Source: SGT