Wastewater monitoring by technology

​The automatic wastewater monitoring station invested by the province is located in Nhon Trach Textile and Garment Industrial Zone.

Support the environmental monitoring

Dong Nai is a large industrial province of the country. Currently, the province has 31 Industrial Zones that have been put into operation with more than 2,000 projects. Industrial projects have made an important contribution to promoting the economic development of the province and the whole country. However, the process of industrial development also causes many environmental consequences, including wastewater. To support the monitoring and management of wastewater discharge in Industrial Zones, and promptly detect and handle the risk of environmental pollution, the province has invested in a series of automatic wastewater monitoring stations.

Tam Phuoc Industrial Zone was invested by the province to monitor wastewater in 2013. Thanks to this station, it is convenient to monitor the flow and quality of wastewater after treatment of the Industrial Zones. Talking about this, Mr. Tran Quoc Hung, Deputy Director of Tin Nghia Industrial Park Development Joint Stock Company said that the automatic wastewater monitoring system greatly supports the operation of the plant. For example, in the past time, it has been suggested that the wastewater treatment plant of Tam Phuoc Industrial Zone discharges wastewater into Nuoc Trong stream (An Phuoc Commune, Long Thanh District). If there is no automatic monitoring system, no inspection and analysis of water samples by the functional sector, the company is unfairly blamed.

“We are very concerned about the wastewater. In addition to investing in infrastructure and human resources, the company annually hires an independent unit to take samples to analyze the quality of wastewater after treatment. In case the sample exceeds the standard or the monitoring system sends out a warning signal, we will re-check the entire process and water quality immediately," said Mr. Hung.

Ms. Hoang Thi Dung, environmental staff of Nhon Trach Textile and Garment Industrial Zone Centralized Wastewater Treatment Plant, said that due to the increasing amount of wastewater and diverse wastewater composition, the application of a physico-chemical technology to treat sometimes have problems. The automatic monitoring station helps the unit monitor the evolution of parameters, promptly detect problems, and then adjust to conform to standards. This also helps enterprises in the Industrial Zone to operate safely and reduce environmental risks.

Not only supporting the operation of wastewater treatment plants, the automatic wastewater monitoring system helps environmental management agencies to easily monitor and the quality of industrial water after treatment. Since then, suggesting a plan to inspect and support the Industrial Zones to implement a plan to prevent the wastewater incidents.

Industrial Zones must have monitoring stations

According to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, since 2010, Industrial Zones in the province have installed automatic and continuous wastewater monitoring stations. However, the stations installed by the investors of the Industrial Zones have few monitoring parameters and are inconsistent in technical characteristics and procedures, so the results are inaccurate. To strengthen the control of environmental pollution, following the direction of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Committee, the Department installed automatic and continuous wastewater monitoring stations in 25 Industrial Zones. Monitoring stations act as "magic eyes" to monitor wastewater treatment and discharge activities of Industrial Zones.

Mr. Dang Minh Duc, Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment said that Dong Nai spends a lot of resources on environmental protection of the Industrial Zone. The province has invested in a series of monitoring stations for wastewater, emissions, and air inside and around the Industrial Zones. This system not only provides information and data to serve the state management of the environment, strengthens the warning and monitoring capacity, but also helps people to monitor the water quality, and activities of units performing the function of environmental protection management. Since the monitoring station has been established, the awareness of wastewater treatment enterprises has been increasingly enhanced. In case of detecting abnormal signs, the Department will request branches, localities and Industrial Zones to take remedial measures to ensure the quality of wastewater meets standards when discharged into the environment.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Trung, Deputy Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, under Dong Nai Industrial Zones Authority said that thanks to the automatic monitoring system, the situation of stealthily discharging wastewater into the environment at night, when it rains, is significantly reduced. Environmental incidents related to wastewater are also reduced. In addition to the monitoring system, the Dong Nai Industrial Zones Authority periodically coordinates with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Division of Natural Resources and Environment in districts, and industrial park infrastructure investment companies to inspect the collection and treatment of wastewater at the Industrial Zones to improve the effectiveness of protection and prevention.

Currently, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment is asking enterprises with a discharge volume of more than 1,000 m3 per day that have been licensed to discharge wastewater to the Industrial Zone wastewater treatment plant to facilitate management and supervision. Industrial Zones that do not have automatic wastewater monitoring systems or degraded monitoring systems must complete investment, upgrade wastewater monitoring stations and connect to data transmission to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

Phan Anh