Thick layers of foam that look like soap bubbles developing on the surface of the canal and reeking of an awful smell are the visible consequences of water contamination in the Ba Bo Canal, which flows from the southern province of Binh Duong to neighboring Ho Chi Minh City.

It has also caused an increase in respiratory diseases among locals living along the waterway.

The pollution of the Ba Bo Canal has taken place for over a decade while the water contamination has remained almost unchanged despite a costly project to ‘clean’ the channel starting in 2008.

‘The canal of calamity’

Nearly VND1.1 trillion (US$52.9 million) has been spent in the last seven years building concrete embankments on the canal, a reservoir upstream to contain polluted water, a pumping unit, and a ‘biological’ lake to process polluted water before it is sent down the canal.

Two roads along both sides of the canal have also been constructed.

But the essential problem is that the construction has failed to prevent factories in Binh Duong and Ho Chi Minh City from dumping industrial wastewater into the canal.

As a result, the water pollution has tortured locals for years, bringing in ‘calamities’ such as diseases and a degraded living environment.

Pham Van Lic, 73, a local living along the canal in Binh Chieu Ward of Ho Chi Minh City’s Thu Duc District, recalled, “The water was limpid and green with an abundance of fish and shrimp before 1990.

“It took me just an hour to catch fish from the waterway to feed my family of ten for two or three days.

“We even used the water for bathing and cooking then.”

But problems emerged when the Song Than 1, Song Than 2, and Dong An industrial parks opened in Binh Duong, causing the water of the canal to have changed its color and the fish to have disappeared since 2003, according to another resident, Nguyen Van Tu.

The smellier the canal became, the harder it was for fish and shrimp to survive, he added.

“Many elderly people and children have caught respiratory diseases and have an inflamed oral cavity,” Tu said. “There is no medical evidence to confirm it but I am sure the health symptoms and diseases are related to pollution.”

Locals have filmed and taken pictures of the foam which forms a thick layer on the surface of the water of the canal. The foam gets blown by gusts of wind, covering streets and gardens nearby.

Ineffective cleaning work

Le Thanh Tien, a local living near the Ba Bo Canal, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, “Investment and construction to renovate the channel have improved the smell from the waterway for months.

“But it is not enough to clean it.”

Terrible smells are sometimes caught and foam is still seen there.

Tien said he and his family planned to move to another area to avoid the pollution, but this will affect his business and the studies of his children.

“We couldn’t even eat and sleep well because of the water contamination,” said Hoang Thi Hue in the Dong An 2 residential zone of Binh Hoa Ward, Thuan An Town, Binh Duong.

Locals said that the canal will not be purified if factories keep on dumping wastewater into the waterway, regardless of the construction of a reservoir and a ‘biological’ lake to ‘clean’ water before releasing it into the canal.

The construction of the reservoir and the lake, which was planned to be completed in 2013, started in 2014 and is expected to finish this year.

According to regulations, factories and industrial parks are supposed to process their wastewater to meet environmental safety standards before releasing it into rivers and canals.

Tran Van Nam, deputy standing chairman of the People’s Committee of Binh Duong, said his locality will build a system of observation and test posts along the canal to detect illegal waste dumping into the waterway.

It is estimated that the Ba Bo Canal receives almost 10,000 cubic meters of wastewater a day and the pollution has badly affected tens of thousands of local people.

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