Ca Mau (VNS/VNA) - Despites efforts byauthorities, pollution at industrial parks and clusters in the southernmostprovince of Ca Mau has risen to alarming level, affecting the lives of localresidents.

Doc River Town, for instance, a town inTran Van Thoi district with a population of 40,000, is a hub for fishingindustry logistics and seafood processing.

However, the rapid development of the twoindustries has caused it severe environmental problems.

Located at the town’s entrance, Doc RiverIndustrial Park (IP), which has more than 10 seafood processing facilities, wasonce the province’s pride since it offered jobs to a large number of locals andcontributed significantly to the province’s coffers.

But the same processing facilities have nowbecome a big concern for Doc River Town’s residents.

Tran Minh The of the town’s Hamlet 12 saidemissions from the seafood processors cause respiratory illnesses in manychildren and seniors besides enveloping the town in a bad smell.

Tran Hien Luong of Trum Thuat A Hamlet, said thelocal have protested before being dissuaded by local authorities.

According to town residents, the IP, whichopened nearly 10 years ago, has not built a central wastewater treatment systemfor itself.

Hoa Trung IP in Luong The Trung commune near CaMau city faces similar environmental problems. It has five seafood processingplants and four fish-sauce processing factories, which emit gases and dischargewastewater, affecting locals’ lives and their aquaculture industry.

The pollution and other concerns have beenrepeatedly brought up at meetings with local authorities, but so far nothinghas been done.

Ngo Chi Hung, head of Ca Mau province’sDepartment of Environment Protection, said some factories have managed to stopthe pollution but many others sneakily discharge wastewater and gases duringnon-working hours meaning authorities cannot catch them in the act.

Besides, most of the seafood and fish sauce processingfacilities in the Doc River Town and Hoa Trung IZs are located along rivers,making it difficult for authorities to discover their wastewater discharge, hesaid.

Meanwhile, many small and medium-sized seafoodprocessing enterprises have yet to build wastewater treatment systems,worsening the pollution, he said.

Inspections of these facilities last year foundenvironmental violations, and authorities punished them, he said.

The provincial People’s Committee has instructedrelevant agencies to draw up a list of seafood processing enterprises whichhave not built waste treatment facilities, and ensure they have wastewater andemissions treatment facilities in place by this year.

The enterprises have been instructed to installcameras to monitor their wastewater treatment by this month.

The province has decided it will no longer allowthe setting up of seafood processing facilities outside industrialzones.-VNS/VNA