Over 7,200 public and private hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City do not have standard wastewater treatment systems, the Department of Health has reported.
These medical clinics have only rudimentary systems at the best and discharged their wastewater into septic tanks, which are then released into the sewerage system.
Approximately 45 central, city and district hospitals and private clinics, have not improved their wastewater treatment systems and the old systems cannot satisfy the increase in usage. The wastewater system is overloaded.
Hospitals said they are short of skill personnel in dealing with the issue, while the relevant agencies have yet to penalize any hospital or clinic that do not meet the requirements of a modern waste treatment system.
However, the city Department of Natural Resources and Environment has fined the Mental Hospital in District 5. The hospital was fined VND6 million and was forced to quickly construct a modern standard wastewater treatment facility.
Hospitals in the city have dumped thousands cubic meters of wastewater into the river environments every day.
