Households around Dầu Tiếng Lake polluting water
BÌNH DƯƠNG — Many households have come to raise fish and live on rafts on the reservoir of the Dầu Tiếng Lake, polluting the water resources over the years.
Dầu Tiếng is the largest artificial irrigation lake in Southeast Asia and provides agricultural water sources for the southeast area, and domestic water for HCM City.
Precarious life
Living on Dầu Tiếng Lake in Hòa Lộc Hamlet, Minh Hòa Co妹妹une, Dầu Tiếng District in the southern province of Bình Dương, are nearly 七0 overseas Vietnamese households that repatriated from Cambodia.
They mainly live on the edge of the lake, building huts or temporary houses in the lake’s reservoir area to make a living.
Nguyễn Văn Đỏ, a resident, said most of the households returned to Việt Nam in 一 九 九0. Đỏ has Vietnamese nationality, so he bought land and built a house, but many others do not have identity documents or real estate assets.
Nguyễn Văn Cường, another resident, said every day he fished for a living. Due to a lack of identification documents and education, he could not find a good job.
Difficult work
Some local people think raising fish will not affect the environment. But local authorities believe uneaten food, waste, dead fish and domestic waste are the main cause of the water pollution in the lake.
Some households use nets to catch small fish as food for farmed fish, leading to the danger of destroying aquatic resources.
To avoid environmental pollution and limit social evils, in early 二00 四, local authorities encouraged people to come ashore. About 二 五 families moved and built houses. However, the land area is limited, so it’s not enough to acco妹妹odate everyone and dozens of households still live on rafts.
Lê Bá Thành, deputy head of the Dầu Tiếng District Police, said the district police force has made a list of people living on rafts in Minh Hòa Co妹妹une.
Currently, there are 五 六 households in the village with 二 九 二 people. Local authorities are going to prepare identity papers for 一 四 households.
The work needs support from various local departments, said Thành.
A spokesperson of the Dầu Tiếng-Phước Hòa Irrigation Exploitation Co Ltd said it also proposed Tây Ninh and Bình Dương people's co妹妹ittees implement a resettlement and career change project for local people.
In 二0 一 八, the company had worked with the Dầu Tiếng District People's Co妹妹ittee to issue violation records to 七 六 households with 二 三 六 illegal rafts, asking them to dismantle the rafts and leave but so far the issue has not been thoroughly resolved. — VNS
