Waste water from the district’s Le Minh Xuan Industrial Park had polluted 66 out of its 226 canals, which could no longer supply water for people’s daily use and irrigation, said Nguyen Thi Du, chief inspector at the Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

Du told city agencies at a meeting last Friday that her inspection team found 27 facilities in the industrial park releasing untreated waste water into the environment though the park authority had reported only two of them. The team also discovered waste water dumped in seven of nine ditches in the park used to collect rainwater for drainage.

"Some facilities in the district’s Vinh Loc Industrial Park are licensed to produce glue but are in reality recycling harmful solvents," said Ngo Thanh Duc, deputy head of the department’s Solid Waste Division, adding that they then released the effluents untreated into the environment. Duc warned that the district had become a destination for many unregistered facilities who set up temporary bases to recycle solid waste after being driven away from other districts.

Nguyen Van Tuoi, deputy chairman of the district, admitted this, saying: "Most polluters from the city have come to the district and worsened the pollution here." City officials told the meeting that they feared the district’s canals would soon be unable to support life – just like those in District 8 – unless authorities took timely measures.

Municipal authorities last Wednesday met officials at the district’s Da Phuoc Solid Waste Treatment Complex following public complaints about the seepage of water from the complex’s landfill and called for quickly finishing construction of the complex. Also last week the city People’s Committee ordered the environment department to investigate pollution caused by some small factories in Da Phuoc commune.

Tran Trong Tuan, the district chairman, said his administration was determined to root out polluters setting up shop in the district even if it meant a loss of tax revenue.

Huynh Cong Hung, deputy head of the People’s Council’s Economics and Budget Committee, said the tardiness in planning, which had caused uncontrolled urbanisation, has led to the pollution problems.

Committee head Pham Van Dong admitted that the district had submitted its master plan as long ago as last year to the committee’s Department of Planning and Architecture and was awaiting for approval.

Nguyen Dinh Luan of the architecture department promised to complete appraisal of the plan and submit it to the city People’s Committee for approval in November.