Mekong Delta paying for industrial zone fever

Agricultural land in the Mekong Delta is in disarray thanks to overzealous plans to build industrial parks in the area since 2005.

Pollution from the parks has resulted in fish farms recording major stock losses and crops dying off thanks to contaminated water sources.

Much of the blame has been laid at the doorstep of local authorities who ignored environmental requirements to attract more investors into the Vietnamese economic feeding frenzy which truly got underway in 2005.

“Developing IPs in the Mekong Delta was not based on careful study, just mimicking a movement,” said Tran Huu Hiep, vice office manager of the southwest direction board.

Today, two thirds of the IP areas sit abandoned. But the other third has managed to leave its pollution mark.

As some IPs don’t have waste treatment systems, factories resort to using underground water sources and pump waste directly into the rivers, Hiep admitted.

Ironically, the Mekong Delta now has 151 IPs covering 40,000 hectares, all of which used to be rice fields, he told Tuoi Tre.

But only 34 percent of space is being used and in some parks as little as five percent.
Hiep says the region’s competitive advantage has always been in agriculture. So, instead of pouring money into industry, authorities should spend it on hi-tech agriculture.
(Tuoi Tre, Vietnews)