One in every four resorts in Binh Thuan Province does not treat wastewater because of lacking wastewater facilities, according to the provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
The province has 125 operational resorts, and around three-fourths of them have wastewater facilities, said director of the department Ngo Minh Chinh. He told the Daily on the phone on Monday that the remaining 25% that had not built wastewater facilities as required might face the axe if they did not quickly abide by the rule.
Binh Thuan Province, known for its cluster of resorts in Mui Ne in Phat Thiet City, had earlier set end-1009 as the deadline for all resorts to build their own wastewater facilities. A new deadline will be given, which will be followed by tough punitive sanctions and even shutdown if resort operators fail to comply, Chinh said.
“In the coming time, we will put heavier fines on any resort failing to treat wastewater properly. If resorts do not build a wastewater facility, we will go after them with a forced closedown,” he said, without giving a timeline.
Binh Thuan, with a coastline stretching 190 kilometers, is an ideal destination for both domestic and international tourists. According to the province’s tourism department, the tourism industry is expected to generate total revenue of some VND2.5 trillion this year.
However, Chinh said the coastal tourism sector there was being threatened by the rampant development of other industries including industrial manufacturing, aquatic processing, and titanium exploitation. As these industries are causing adverse impacts on the environment, the tourism department is preparing a revised plan for tourism development till 2020, Chinh said.
The revised tourism plan will call for zoning suitable sites for fishing boats, limiting the exploitation of titanium at places near resorts, and building facilities for waste and wastewater treatment at resorts and tourism places.
“The department is fielding suggestions from other departments for this revised plan, and we hope to complete it within this year,” said the department’s director.
Asked to comment on the fact that Mui Ne, together with Khanh Hoa Province’s Nha Trang, is bottom rated in this year’s Destinations Rated survey conducted by the National Geographic Society’s Center for Sustainable Destinations and published in National Geographic Traveler magazine, Chinh did not go straight to the point but said Binh Thuan would organize a seminar on January 17 to provide an insight into beach tourism development in the province.
The province will invite many local and international tourism experts to this seminar to give clearer information on the beach tourism for their judgment, he said.
