Competent authorities in Ho Chi Minh City are trying to purify a heavily polluted ditch that flows into and contaminates the city’s major river, which is also its main source of fresh water.

The municipal People’s Council has ordered relevant agencies to measure the pollution index at the Binh Tho canal, snaking its way through District 9 and Thu Duc District, which has been reported by local residents to be severely contaminated.

The two-kilometer-long watercourse flows into the Saigon River, which is one of the primary water resources in the southern hub.

According to people living along the ditch, the impurity has caused a foul smell to enshroud the entire neighborhood, forcing them to keep their doors and windows shut around the clock.

About 11 facilities and businesses are operating in District 9, of which four have been discovered discharging untreated wastewater into the Binh Tho canal, the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment said.

The watercourse receives household wastewater of about 13,000 residents of a nearby neighborhood as well as of a market in the vicinity.

Liquid waste from some residential areas, home to about 9,000 citizens, in neighboring Thu Duc District also flows into the canal, the department added.

One of the proposed measures to eliminate pollution in the Binh Tho canal is to establish wastewater treatment systems at processing facilities.

Specialized devices will also be installed to regularly monitor the water quality index of those businesses that release a large volume of wastewater, which is over 1,000 cubic meters per day.

All data will be transferred to the monitoring and analysis center under the Department of Natural Resources and Environment for better management over the activities of local businesses.

Two wastewater treatment plants, with a capacity of 170,000 and 130,000 cubic meters a day, will be built in District 9 and Thu Duc District as a long-term solution to the contamination.

In the meantime, dredging will be carried out to temporarily improve the environmental quality of the canal.