Ministries at odds over 'cancer villages'

Waste from the aluminum recycling process at Man Xa Village, Bac Ninh Province

On December 27, the Ministry of Health took water samples for tests at ten villages in Ha Nam, Bac Ninh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh and Binh Thuan provinces and Hanoi. They will set up a council to review and propose solutions to the problem. The first meeting will be held in February, 2017.

The National Centre for Water Resources Planning and Investigation under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment reported that cancer rates in ten villages scattered across Vietnam’s northern, central and southern regions range between 73 and 169 per 100,000 residents because of lead-contaminated water.

On December 12, the Vietnam Health Environment Management Agency (VIHEMA) under the Ministry of Health said they had sent reports to health departments in all localities to assure people that the there were no ‘cancer villages’.

Do Manh Cuong, vice head of VIHEMA said the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment's tests had errors. "The National Centre for Water Resources Planning and Investigation took samples of surface water and underground water. But in fact, most households are using tap water," he said.

According to the Ministry of Health, cancer can be caused by various factors. The VIHEMA said that cancer rates in those villages range from 73 to 169 per 100,000 people. These numbers were no higher than the national cancer rates of 135 for women and 181 for men, per 100,000.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment announced the list of cancer villages last year. This was part of a project to identify clean water sources carried out from 2001 to 2015 at 37 villages. According to local authorities, 1,136 people had died from cancer in the villages, 380 people in adjacent areas also died from cancer in the past five to 20 years.