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Ha Tinh’s people pray to heaven for help clear toxic pesticides

Saturday, March 15, 2014
Plant protection chemical residues still exist in 160 places in Ha Tinh province in 74 communes, making people live in fear of cancer diseases.
The Death is near
Ly and her children.
In Trung Trinh hamlet of Viet Xuyen Commune in Thach Ha district alone, 30 people, including old men and children have reportedly suffered from cancer diseases.
Nguyen Thi Ly, 43, cried aloud when saying that both her husband and husband’s father have died of cancer. Meanwhile, her two children have suffered from mental diseases. “In bad weather, they suffer from fits of convulsive and scream. I don’t know what to do with them but crying,” she said.
“The water well at my house could be the culprit behind the deaths and the diseases of my relatives. The water is muddy, turns yellow and gives a bad odor. However, this is the only source of water for my family,” she complained.
Duong Hong Long, 59, said he is also a cancer victim. He has to spend hundreds of millions of dong for treatment over the last two years, but he still gets weaker. He has lost his hair, cannot speak clearly and find it difficult to swallow.
“There is a pesticide warehouse just behind my house. The sweet potatoes I grew year had strange dark color and gave the smell of pesticide,” he said. “Everything could be the poison to people.”
According to the head of Trung Trinh Hamlet Duong Phung Hung, there were three agriculture material warehouses in the hamlet, from which pesticide and fertilizer has been leaking and absorbed into the earth.
“Local people, who drink the pesticide polluted water have got cancer and a lot of other fatal diseases,” Hung said. While people are getting serious diseases, the plants are withering away.
Whom to pray for help?
Also according to Hung, in 2007, a group of officials and scientists came to the locality, taking water samples for testing. They recommended local people not to use the water from wells, but use the rain water for cooking. However, as the rain water is not enough for their daily life, they still have been using the polluted water for bathing and washing clothes.
“In summer, when the water is short, we have to use the filtered water for cooking,” Hung said.
The district’s authorities have propped up VND24 million to three families in the hamlet to build three clean water tanks. However, the other hundreds of households still have to use dirty water for their daily lives. Meanwhile, the local authorities have not thought of any solution to provide clean water to people and give financial support to those who incur cancer diseases.
The diseases have frightened the women, old people and children living there. Meanwhile, the young men, who left the homeland in the past, don’t want to come back.
The Ha Tinh provincial People’s Committee has set up a steering committee on implementing the national program on fixing pollution and improving the environment. However, the steering committee cannot give the program implementation a push.
Le Dinh Son, Chair of the Steering Committee, admitting that the process of treating pollution in 160 places in the locality has been going very slowly.
Dan Viet
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