Phu Quoc suffers from success

KIEN GIANG Phu Quoc’s National Resources and Environmental Office says increasing pollution is threatening the seas and ecology surrounding the tourist island of Phu Quoc.
VietnamNet Bridge media reported the office said rubbish and waste water from tourism services, fishing boats and fish breeding farms are discharging some 180 tonnes of waste per day, though only half is being properly collected, causing serious contamination to the marine environment.
In addition, areas on the island are seriously polluted from rubbish heaps, dead fish and rotting seafood, causing foul odors.
The high cost of dealing with tourism-related garbage and sewage is not being passed on to the offending companies in the form of treatment and disposal fees or taxes.
inside no 3More than 100,000 residents live on the island, along with over 1,600 companies and businesses, predominantly hotels, resorts, services and food processing workshops are dumping garbage without proper treatment and there is no adequate waste water treatment systems, the report said.
Most hotels and resorts are granted certificates for standard waste water, but treated waste water sources in some locations is polluted, according to statements by the provincial People’s Committee.
Phu Quoc district’s People’s Committee deputy chairman, Huynh Quang Hung, admitted that due to the rapid development of tourism, the environment in many places on the island has been degraded and is no longer healthy.
Experts said a lack of waste water treatment systems results in pollution and will affect the development of tourism and groundwater systems of the island.
To deal with the problem, the committee has approved a project to build a waste treatment plant operated by Global Renewable Energy Joint Stock Company. It is expected to be put into within two years.
Vietnam is one of five countries that an Ecowatch study claimed are responsible for 60% of global plastic pollution in the seas. The other four offending nations were China, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand.
So far, Phu Quoc district has attracted more than 164 tourism-related projects worth USD7.7 billion.
It welcomed 600,000 visitors, last year, up 37% compared to 2013, according to the Kien Giang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The island targets 2 to 3 million tourists a year in the next decade.
All travellers can visit Phu Quoc for 30 days without a visa, but they must, either enter through the island’s seaport, or through its airport, after transiting through Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City’s international airports.

sourced:ttrweekly.com