VN Express –
A section of the Cai Lon River in Hau Giang Province has turned black and foul-smelling, killing fish and contaminating local water sources.
For the past several days Ly Minh Lam, a resident of Long My Town in the Mekong Delta province, has been unable to use water from the river for his family’s straw mushroom garden.
He has begun to think of installing pipes to carry water from a ditch to the garden instead.
A 10-km section of the river, from the town to Long My District, has recently become dark and stinky. Dead fish could be spotted floating in places while some people in the area said their water has turned yellowish or reddish.
All this is the result of agricultural activities, Nguyen Tien Danh, chairman of the Long My Town People’s Committee, said.
Authorities have ruled out the possibility that production businesses were responsible since they stopped their activities “a long time ago,” he said.
Farmers have harvested over 10,000 ha of paddy during the recent rains, and the water has been contaminated by decomposing straws, he said.