Smoke billowing from the landfill right next to the cemetery in Quy Chau district

Tan Lac town landfill (Quy Chau), established in 2008, is located in Ta Lanh village, Chau Hanh commune. After many years of operation, this landfill has become overloaded, causing environmental pollution and is no longer suitable as it is located close toHighway 48. Every time it rains, water from the landfill overflows onto the street. In addition, because the method of garbage treatment here is mainly manual by burning, but it is not thorough, the pollution situation is even more serious.

Tan Lac town landfill is located right at the corner of Highway 48 and next to the training ground of Quy Chau District Military Command. Photo: TD

What is especially offensive is that this landfill is located about 100m from the Martyrs' Cemetery of Quy Chau district. Every time the sun comes up or when the garbage is burned, the foul smell rises up, making many people living near the landfill extremely upset.

It is worth mentioning that this landfill is located about 100m from the Martyrs Cemetery of Quy Chau district. Every time the garbage is burned, the smoke is blown up by the wind and covers the entire cemetery grounds. Photo: TD

Mr. Pham Van Nguyen, Ta Lanh village, lives near the landfill, said that his family came to live here before the landfill was built. Since the garbage was gathered here, it has brought alongenvironmental pollutionserious. During the day, flies swarmed everywhere, and his family sometimes had to use mosquito nets to eat.

Every time it rains, water from the landfill flows out onto the street, and when the sun shines, flies and mosquitoes, along with the foul smell and smoke, make many families in the area extremely upset. Photo: TD

Mr. Vi The Long - Chairman of Chau Hanh Commune People's Committee, shared: in fact, this landfill mainly performs the task of collecting and processing garbage of the town, Chau Hanh Commune only has some surrounding villages such as Minh Tien, Ta Lanh, Ke Bang that have garbage collected there. The local government has also made many requests but has not been able to completely resolve the issue.

Tan Lac town landfill is actually just a garbage collection point with an area of ​​less than 1 hectare. The landfill is located right next to the road to the stone quarry, next to the cemetery and adjacent to the training ground of Quy Chau District Military Command. This open-air landfill is increasingly overloaded, plus there is no thorough treatment plan, causing a large surrounding area to be affected.

Currently, smoke and stench from the landfill are still rising strongly, spreading into the surrounding environment. Photo: TD

Mr. Vo Thai Tinh - Chairman of Tan Lac Town People's Committee said: Currently, the town is collecting twice a week, 6 trucks transporting garbage to the landfill each week. The cost of implementation is being assigned by Quy Chau District People's Committee and a contract is being signed with a number of workers to collect and transport garbage to the collection point. Although we know it is overloaded and polluting the environment, we are currently waiting for a new landfill so we still have to collect at that point and there is no other place.

Mr. Lo Thanh Son - Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Quy Chau district also acknowledged the reality of environmental pollution at the Tan Lac town landfill, and also found it offensive that the landfill is located next to the district's Martyrs' Cemetery. However, because the new landfill has not yet been built, this situation cannot be remedied.