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| There are 240 chemical-contaminated spots nationwide. — VNA/VNS Photo Duy Hưng |
Viet Nam News
HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam still has 240 pesticide-contaminated locations in 15 localities, causing serious and extremely serious pollution, according to the 2016 National Environment Report.
The report was recently released by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE).
Twenty three of these untreated locations are located in urban areas.
Nghệ An Province, central Việt Nam, tops the list of provinces and cities with 10 chemical-contaminated spots.
MoNRE said land environmental pollution in urban areas tends to be serious and extremely serious due to waste from industry, construction, domestic activities and dioxin-contaminated zones.
Chemical-contaminated zones are divided into dioxin-contaminated landfills suffering from the aftermath of the war and the presence of pesticides warehouses.
The report also revealed that at chemical-contaminated zones, soil is polluted with compounds that have high levels of toxic substances. These substances are hard to eliminate, treat or improve.
At seriously-contaminated zones, Lindane level exceeds permitted level by 37.4 to 3,458 times. It is 1.3 to more than 9,000 times for DDT (dichloro diphenyl trichlorothane), more than 218 times for Aldrin and nearly 100 times for DDD (diclorodiphenyl tricloroetan).
Pesticides and chemicals treatment, however, remains slow due to difficulties in budget.
According to the report, dioxin-contaminated zones are mainly in the south, including military airports and chemical-containing zones. A bomb warehouse in Quang Trung Ward and a chemical warehouse in Bùi Thị Xuân Ward of Quy Nhơn City, the central province of Bình Định, were, therefore, moved out of residential areas.
The report also mentioned Biên Hòa Airport in the southern province of Đồng Nai as a large dioxin-contaminated zone, which is located to the airport’s north and southwest. Some 163,000sq.m of soil has dioxin level of more than 1,000ppt toxic equivalency.
At Đà Nẵng Airport in the central city of Đà Nẵng (quite close to residential areas), there are three dioxin-contaminated zones with dioxin level of more than 1,000ppt toxic equivalency. They are located to the north of the airport with total area of 88,000sq.m. — VNS
