Alarm about pollution in markets and craft villages in Thai Hoa town

(Baonghean) - For many years, the environmental pollution problem at Hieu market (Quang Phong ward, Thai Hoa town) and the wood craft village in the area has been at an alarming level.

Alarm in Quang Phong carpentry village

For a long time, carpentry in Quang Phong craft village (Quang Phong ward, Thai Hoa town) has brought high income, creating jobs for many local workers. However, environmental pollution in the craft village has not been solved yet and is creating great danger to the living environment and health of the people.

Garbage at Hieu market, Thai Hoa town. Photo: Van Truong

Studying the environmental pollution caused by wood production and trading activities in Quang Phong carpentry village, Thai Hoa town, we found that most of the wood production and trading establishments here are located along the road, mixed with densely populated residential areas. Families often use their houses as wood processing facilities, which also double as business locations for dealing with customers.

During the production process, many chemical materials are being directly discharged into residential areas. At a wood production facility in Quang Phong carpentry village, painters often only use a thin mask to prevent chemicals from entering, do not wear gloves, do not wear protective clothing... spray paint on wooden furniture right on the roadside, with a lot of paint dust.

The carpenters here all want to invest in their own paint spraying room, both to ensure quality and to avoid pollution to residents, but investing in a paint spraying room is very expensive.

It is known that in the past, people did carpentry and painted by hand, but now they all spray paint with machine sprayers. According to health experts, if using machine spray paint, it can affect other households within a radius of 300m; the type of paint commonly used by most households is PU paint, varnish containing highly toxic substances, such as polymer, alkyd resin, vinyl resin, PU resin, xylene, methanol, E...

Large paint particles will be retained in the nose, extremely small paint particles will be swept deep into the bronchi, bronchioles, causing diseases such as asthma, respiratory infections, skin allergies and in the long term can be the source to develop cancer... A local resident shared: Houses near carpentry workshops, having to endure noise from machinery and dust, paint, so everyone feels tightness in the chest, difficulty breathing, especially for the elderly and children, so many times when indoors, they have to cover their nose and mouth with their hands.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Nam - Director of Quang Phong Carpentry Cooperative said: The carpentry village has 145 participating households, the most dangerous environmental pollution is paint pollution. Because there is no centralized paint spraying area, families in the carpentry profession mainly spray paint for products in public works such as on the street, stadium, village cultural house... causing serious toxic pollution. Currently, the People's Committee of Thai Hoa town has a project to build a centralized paint spraying area for the craft village with a value of more than 11 billion VND, expected to be built in 2017; the town will allocate a part of the budget to support...

Mr. Phan Thanh Hai - Head of the Economic Department of Thai Hoa town added: The problem of environmental pollution in the carpentry village in Quang Phong has been warned for many years. Some establishments have not implemented measures to ensure environmental hygiene, so wood dust and paint odors are still released into the air, seriously affecting the water environment, soil and people's health.

To solve this situation, in addition to propagating to craft villages such as strictly prohibiting acts that cause environmental pollution such as dumping waste and garbage on the street, emitting dust, toxic gases, and encroaching on the roadside for production purposes. In 2017, the Town People's Committee will try to invest in putting into use a concentrated painting area according to the project to reduce environmental pollution in craft villages.

Outdoor painting in Quang Phong carpentry village (Thai Hoa). Photo: Van Truong

Waste pollution at Hieu market

Hieu Market (Hoa Hieu Ward, Thai Hoa Town) currently has more than 700 business households, bringing in a significant amount of revenue for the locality every year. Hieu Market is in a prime location, the gateway center of the Northwest region of Nghe An. The market serves goods for districts such as Quy Hop, Que Phong, Quy Chau... However, for a long time, Hieu Market has been "hot" with environmental pollution due to the current situation of garbage dumping here.

Observing at Hieu market day, we saw a large amount of waste and wastewater from shops and kiosks such as plastic bags, waste paper, vegetables, leftover products, and wastewater from slaughtering chickens, ducks, and fish left behind. Part of this waste is collected, part is accumulated, causing environmental pollution, significantly affecting food hygiene and safety at the market, as well as the lives of households around the area.

The most serious pollution is currently concentrated in the outdoor market area, with garbage overflowing even in the sales area. The pork stall area is dilapidated, the floor is wet, and there is no clean water to use for cleaning. Ms. Nguyen Thi K, a pork stall seller, shared: The food market area has not been upgraded, so it lacks necessary environmental sanitation items, such as a drainage system, a leaky roof, and in the hot season, this area smells foul.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Nam - Head of Hieu Market Management Board said: The market has hundreds of business households. Although in recent years, some items have been invested in upgrading such as repairing the main and secondary communal houses, due to lack of synchronous investment, it has seriously degraded.

Especially at 54 food stalls that are seriously degraded and at high risk of fire and explosion. Regarding the problem of garbage being dumped in the market, at the end of the day, the Management Board assigns workers to clean up in one place, then the Environmental Company's vehicle comes to take it away. We also actively promote within our management area. However, the difficulty is that there are still cases of unsanitary conditions, especially among those who go to the market every day, do small and irregular business and are not aware of maintaining public hygiene. These are also subjects that we cannot fully manage.

Van Truong