Da Nang (VNS/VNA) - “Dirty” and “stinky” are the twowords most used to describe Tho Quang port in the central city of Da Nang overthe last decade.

From Man Quang bridge overlooking the port, garbage bags can beseen spread across adjacent grass fields and embankments.

A fishing port of the city, after years of receiving untreateddomestic wastewater and industrial wastewater from tourist cruises and seafoodprocessing factories, Tho Quang port is now glazed with black grease andstinks, the Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper reported.

The coastal city of Da Nang is facing severe water pollution insome of its major tourism spots, while clean-up efforts from local authoritieshave had little effect, putting local residents’ livelihoods and the city’stourism economy at risk.

My Khe beach, which used to be ranked among the world’s mostbeautiful beaches, faces a similar situation. Wastewater has been dischargedfrom the city’s 41 wastewater discharge outlets directly into the sea,resulting in not only water pollution but also erosion of hundreds of cubicmetres of sand.

[Da Nang: Two projects found di𓂃scharging wastewater🦹 into beaches]

The conditions in these areas are affecting local residents’livelihoods. Nguyen Thi Chin, who works in tourism on the beach, said that thebeach is getting so polluted it scares tourists off.“A few years ago wastewater was only discharged into the sea fromtime to time,” she said. “But now it’s happening more frequently, bringinggarbage and dead sea creatures to the shore.”

Residents living near the wastewater discharge outlets reportedfeeling “itchy” after putting their feet into the water. Tourists were reportedto have moved to other beaches for their vacations.

“The foul smell follows us into every meal and even in our sleep,”said a hotel owner living near the Tho Quang port. “Nobody dares to come nearthis area anymore, which is a real loss for our business.”

“Sanitation workers clean up trash above and below the water fromsome 700 tourist cruises and fishing boats per day, but each dayeverything goes back to where it was,” said Ngo Van Cat, deputy director of theport’s management board.

“The biggest problem is that we are still using manual wastetreatment techniques for such an important fishing port of the city and thecentral region, which hosts some 22,000 fishing boats per year,” he said.

Regarding the April decision of the city’s agricultural departmentto spend 271 billion VND (11.9 million USD) developing the port into a majorfishing port and seafood logistics centre, Cat said he hopes it will help solvethe pollution issue and encourage tourists to visit.

The increasing number of tourists the city has received in thelast few years is one of the factors that overwhelmed its wastewater treatmentcapacity, said Mai Ma, director of the Da Nang Drainage and WastewaterTreatment Company. 

Last month, 11 households that raised fish in the Co Co River inthe city’s Ngu Hanh Son District were devastated to discover that dozens oftonnes of their fish were dead as the result of wastewater discharge from awastewater treatment plant.  

“The amount of domestic wastewater has increased by three to fourtimes, leaking into the sea even during the dry season,” Ma said.

“Our decade-old equipment cannot meet the wastewater treatmentdemands,” he added. “We are waiting for projects on water quality improvementfrom foreign sponsors to be implemented, but that is unlikely to happen anytimesoon”.-VNA