VietNamNet Bridge – Of the 12 people who died of illnesses in Lung Vi Village in Hanoi, eight of them had cancer. In one family of five brothers, four had liver cancer.
The road to Lung Vi village is called by locals as a ‘cancer village’ in Dong Phuong Yen commune in Chuong My district in Hanoi. According to statistics, the village has 1,800 inhabitants and 45 deaths by cancer in the last 10 years.
The village is located on the lowest terrain of Dong Phuong Yen commune. As a result, waste water from slaughterhouses, handicraft factories and industrial companies in the commune runs to the area. The ditch around the village is always a reddish color caused by chemicals, and has a very bad smell.
Local people say factories in the area have discharged untreated wastewater into the ditch. “Every time we work in the field without wearing boots and gloves, our hands and feet will itch,” Phuong, a local resident, said.
Safe water is extremely scarce here in such a depressed area.
This 10-m deep well supplies drinking water for nearly half of the households in the village.
Inside, the water is dirty, full of floating scum.
Not far from the well is a system of drainage ditches.
Water from the well is reddish and has a strange smell. Local people have to filter it several times before use.
Local people said that they have to use water from this well because they have no other sources of water.
Most people in the village have to use surface water (water from wells with a depth of less than 10 m). According to a 2014 survey by the Hanoi Safe Water and Environment Center, the water in Lung Vi does not satisfy many safe criteria.
Phan Ngoc Huan, Vice Chair of Dong Phuong Yen commune, said the number of people getting sick and dying from cancer in recent years was on the rise.
“The cancers are related to lung and liver, and the patients tend to rejuvenate. Many of them are over 40 or only 30 years old,” Huan said.
Mrs. Nguyen Thi Tuat, 72, has five sons. In the past two years, three of them died of liver cancer. Another son has just been diagnosed with liver cancer.
Local people are waiting for the local authorities’ assistance to deal with the water pollution.
Zing