The people in Tam Hiep Commune of Nui Thanh District in the central province of Quang Nam have become well-off quickly over the last five years. However, they have paid a heavy price as the their health has been affected by polluted land and rivers.
Tam Hiep, which was once a poor area, has become a bustling industrial site, where factories generate smoke all the day and trucks go in and out from early in the morning to late at night. The Chu Lai Industrial Zone, with 20 factories inside, has created thousands of jobs for locals.
As the land area is becoming industrialized, local people must adapt to new circumstances. Tam Hiep’s residents don’t have the habit of doing physical exercise in the morning because of the bad air. They have to close windows tightly at night to sleep because of the thick dust from the factories. The children at nearby nursery schools cannot play in the school yards because they may be affected by the smoke and dust, and become sick.
The Chu Lai Floating Glass near Phai Nhon Hamlet regularly churns out columns of smoke every day. Tuyet, 39, said clothes hung on washing lines turn black after one day, while all the people there have to wear protective masks when sleeping.
Sy, the owner of a café, complained that he is the biggest sufferer in the area because the café faces the factory. “I always get up very early in the morning,” Sy said. “I once saw people going by and doing physical exercises on the pavement. But since the day the factory began to burn rubber tyre as fuel, people dare not go there any longer”. “As you may see, the streets are so deserted. Some people say they feel nauseous. It is unbearable on rainy days. It’s like you are in a sewer,” he said.
However, the people in Tho Khuong Hamlet said that they suffer even more.. There is a canal linking the industrial zone and the Tho Khuong rice field, 40 hectares large, from which dirty water goes directly into the field. Tho Khuong hamlet was the only area which suffered a winter-spring crop failure. The rice grains turned black and rotten. “All of our efforts were in vain. How dare we eat such black rice? We may not feed fowl with the rice because the fowl may get poisoned,” a farmer complained.
“The polluted water in Tho Khuong has killed many cows and buffaloes. It has not killed people, but instead has brought diseases to them,” she added.
Nguyen Van Tien, head of the Tho Khuong hamlet’s local authorities, said local people have to pay a heavy price for the industrial production development in the locality.
“More and more children have caught diseases. Over two hectares of land have been left uncultivated,” he said. “The water wells, which are the main source of water for locals, have turned black”.
“We many times asked for the local authorities’ intervention, but nothing has improved,” he continued. Nguyen Thi Tien, deputy chair of Tam Hiep Commune People’s Committee, confirmed that the committee had scheduled many working sessions with the enterprises to ask them to settle problems after hearing complaints from the locals. However, the enterprises have not done anything to fulfill the request.
Source: vietnamnet