Saigon’s
prettiest canal defaced by huge refuse volume
Trash is densely
concentrated in a section of the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal near Bui Huu Nghia
Bridge, which links District 1 and Binh Thanh District. Tuoi Tre
Once considered the most beautiful
channel in Ho Chi Minh City, the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal has grown unsightly
in recent years, weighed down with up to 13 metric tons of garbage each day.
The 10km-long waterway snakes through District 1,
District 3, Phu Nhuan District, Binh Thanh District and Tan Binh District in
the southern Vietnamese metropolis.
It was given a facelift to transform it from a murky,
dead waterway into a clean, green one with lush greenery along its sides.
The sides have become new playgrounds for local
residents to unwind and exercise, and a rich habitat for fish to thrive in,
if they are lucky enough to avoid getting caught by opportunistic, illegal
anglers.
However, locals’ relief has been short-lived, as
shortly after its facelift, the first phase of which ended in 2012, the canal
has been topped with all kinds of refuse dumped by mindless residents,
creating ghastly scenes and posing a grave pollution threat.
According to Phan Hoc Hai, in charge of the sanitary
worker team under the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Environment Co. Ltd., his team
scoops up between seven and 13 metric tons of garbage released into the canal
on a daily basis.
The huge volume of trash has landed the Nhieu Loc-Thi
Nghe Canal in the city’s list of the most contaminated waterways.
The environmental pollution has led to fish dying en
masse.
The Ho Chi Minh City Urban Environment Co. has now
deployed 20 boats to pick up trash, mostly consumer garbage, rubble, animal
carcasses, nylon bags and even broken pieces of furniture, which are adrift
and emit foul odors along the canal.
At 5:00 am the other day, Tuoi Tre (Youth)
newspaper reporters followed a trash-collecting team on one of their
workdays.
Around 30 workers riding on 10 boats picked up over
five metric tons of trash along the canal’s length on that morning alone.
Trash could be spotted afloat in large clusters
everywhere, from the middle of the canal to beneath the bridges crossing over
it.
“The Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal receives large volumes of
refuse from Xuyen Tam Creek [in Binh Thanh and Go Vap Districts] and the
Saigon River,” Hai explained.
“Unthinking locals continue to litter on the canal’s
banks and dump bags of trash into the waterway,” he added.
The Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal’s pollution plague began
after 1954 and lingered well into the 1960s.
A project to revamp the canal and its surroundings was
then given high priority.
The first phase of the project, which started in 2002
and focused on revamping the canal and its neighborhood, was completed in
August 2012.
The facelift was at first estimated to cost US$199.96
million, funded by the World Bank, according to The Saigon Times Online.
However, by 2010 the cost had risen to $316.79 million
due to slow implementation progress.
The second phase of the project, including the
construction of a wastewater treatment plant, began in March this year.
The alarming environmental pollution in the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal is the “culprit” behind fish dying en masse. Photo: Tuoi Tre
Trash is found in a section of the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal near
Bui Huu Nghia Bridge, which links District 1 and Binh Thanh District.
Photo: Tuoi Tre
Sanitary workers use a crane to clear up trash and water hyacinth
inundating the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal from the Saigon River. Photo: Tuoi Tre
A man is pictured dumping a large bag of trash into a section of the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal in District 1. Photo: Tuoi Tre
A sanitary worker dives to untangle pieces of refuse enmeshed in the propellers of a trash-collecting boat. Photo: Tuoi Tre
Sanitary workers begin picking up trash along the canal in the early hours on a daily basis. Photo: Tuoi Tre
Litter is seen along the banks of the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal and is later blown or flushed into the canal by winds or rainwater. Photo: Tuoi Tre
A mattress gets entangled in an automatic waste treatment system at
a pump station along the canal and causes its operation system to
malfunction. Photo: Tuoi Tre
The Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal receives a few metric tons of refuse from Xuyen Tam Creek every day. Photo: Tuoi Tre
Tuoi Tre News
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Thứ Hai, 9 tháng 11, 2015
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