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(VEN) - Currently, by creating more jobs, increasing rural people's income and stabilizing society, more than 1,450 traditional craft villages in Vietnam are making an important contribution to socio-economic development. Among these craft villages, formerly Ha Tay (now Hanoi) owns 1,100 villages. However, because production is being conducted in residential areas, these traditional craft villages are doing serious harms to the environment and particularly, having an adverse effect on local people's health, especially in Vietnamese weaving and dyeing villages.
Environmental problems in weaving and dyeing villages
Most of the weaving and dyeing crafts have a long-standing history and the skills and shops have been handed down from generation to generation. In traditional weaving and dyeing villages in former Ha Tay such as Van Phuc, Duong Noi (in Ha Dong district) or Phung Xa (in My Duc district), production is small-scale, operated by households, co-operatives or small production complexes, of which the number of households operating in this sector accounts to 80-85 percent.
Van Phuc silk is a well-known brand by both the domestic population and international tourists. The traditional silk weaving craft has created a large number of jobs and a stable income for local people. Demand is so enormous that it is very difficult for 2,000 laborers in the village to make the market desired quota. The water used in village production is very large. The average water use per household is 2.834 cu.m per day. The total amount of industrial waste and running water is nearly 300 cu.m per day. The untreated wastewater along with waste running water - which contains numerous toxic substances - is released into the local streams, and heavily pollutes the local environment. Notably, the Nhue and Day rivers face alarming pollution levels. In addition to waste water, the noise of weaving machines and exhaust fumes from coal is having significantly adverse effects on people in the village and surrounding areas.
In many weaving villages such as Van Phuc (Ha Dong district), Phung Xa (My Duc district), La Phu (Hoai Duc district), and Cong Hoa (Quoc Oai district), production centers operate in residential areas. Limited land area also makes pollution more serious. People living in downstream villages from heavily polluting craft industry villages may be negatively affected through increased water pollution. Production in some craft villages typically tends to lead to dangerous chronic diseases such as cancer.
The lack of project, budget, and technical support has created many difficulties in establishing a concentrated waste treatment zone.
Environmental management not caught up with economic development
The heavy-handed contradiction between economic benefit and environmental factors is the fact that those suffering are also those causing the problem. Most craft villages are hundreds of years-old or even thousands of years-old, but professional skills are still lacking. Production infrastructure is limited in enterprises which are dispersed in residential areas. The lack of systematic and concrete management measures, financial and human resources and technical assistance has created many challenges in environmental protection and public health care.
Currently, the Vietnamese government has issued policies to create favorable conditions in environmental protection activities such as: supporting land budgets to establish a concentrated waste treatment system; moving severely polluted enterprises out of residential areas; tax reductions; and supporting people with loans for the purpose of environmentally friendly activities. The best solution is moving severely polluted enterprises out of residential areas. This solution has many advantages. The biggest advantage is protecting the public from pollution and health risks. These enterprises will gather in one area and suitable water drainage systems, waste treatment systems and sanitary landfill sites will be built there.
However, these measures are governmental assistance. The main responsibility has to fall on organizations, households and individuals who have been causing pollution./.
By Khac Hieu
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