Vinh City People's Council delegates raised many opinions about environmental pollution in the area.

Scene of the group discussion session at the 12th session of the City People's Council for the 2016 - 2021 term. Photo: Mai Hoa

Solutions to environmental pollution in ancient citadel

The issue raised by many delegates at the group discussion session was that the environmental pollution of Vinh ancient citadel moat is directly affecting the lives and health of people in the area.

In addition, delegates: Tran Hoang Song (Chairman of Doi Cung Ward People's Committee) and Dang Quoc Lanh (Chairman of Cua Nam Ward People's Council) also reflected on the sedimentation of the bottom of the moat and the excessive growth of water hyacinth in the moat. This affects the water flow, causing environmental pollution and posing a risk of flooding to the city during the rainy and stormy season when the drainage system in the south of the city is clogged.

Delegates suggested that the city needs to have a plan to dredge and clear the flow to overcome environmental pollution here.

Delegate Tran Hoang Song (Chairman of Doi Cung Ward People's Committee) proposed to handle environmental pollution at the ancient citadel moat. Photo: Mai Hoa

Acknowledging the environmental pollution at the ancient citadel moat, Mr. Nguyen Van Ngoc - Head of the City's Department of Natural Resources and Environment said that the main reason was that after the moat was completed, the construction, renovation and handover for management and operation were not carried out according to the construction design.

Specifically, in the design, there was a system of ditches to collect and separate domestic water of the people around the moat; the moat only had the task of collecting surface water and rainwater, however, during operation, domestic wastewater flowed in, causing pollution. On the other hand, on the sewer, the domestic water collection pit at one point collapsed, so it could not collect domestic water of the people, leading to it flowing into the moat.

Regarding the sedimentation issue, the rain on October 6, 2019 pushed a large amount of sediment into the ancient citadel moat. Currently, the City People's Committee has assigned departments and offices to fix the above situation before July 30, 2020 with an estimated budget of nearly 2 billion VND.

Delegate Tran Thi Cam Tu - Head of the Vinh City Party Committee's Inspection Committee suggested that the City People's Committee should have a mechanism to deal with people who dump garbage at the wrong time and place. Photo: Mai Hoa

Along with the environmental pollution of the ancient citadel, delegate Tran Thi Cam Tu - Head of the Vinh City Party Committee's Inspection Committee expressed "impatient" when on some streets such as Nguyen Van Cu, Ho Tung Mau, the city had urban renovations and installed garbage bins, but people still littered outside. On the other hand, people also arbitrarily dumped garbage outside the prescribed time.

Delegates suggested that the City People's Committee needs to have a mechanism for strict punishment, and the authorities of wards and communes also need to strengthen propaganda, mobilization and supervision of people's compliance.

Also related to environmental pollution, the issue of inappropriate garbage collection points continues to be raised by the City People's Council delegates. According to delegate Phu Van Phuong - Director of Nghe An Urban Environment and Construction Joint Stock Company, the solution to overcome the current unreasonable collection points is that the city needs to invest budget to upgrade collection capacity, such as having on-site garbage collection and compaction vehicles.

Mass organizations and people join in cleaning and collecting garbage on the surrounding roads and the water surface of the ancient citadel moat. Photo courtesy of Nhat Lan

Many issues are still "hot"

In addition to environmental pollution, many delegates also raised many issues that have continued to cause frustration in the city for many years. That is the work of issuing new and exchanging land use certificates for people, especially in communes merged into the city from Nghi Loc and Hung Nguyen districts.

Delegate Tran Quang Lam - Head of the City's Economic Department admitted that he is confused in finding a solution to make the night street operate effectively. Photo: Mai Hoa

Some delegates also expressed concerns about the operational efficiency of Cao Thang night street and lessons learned from putting the walking street into operation in the area.

Regarding the walking street, delegate Tran Quang Lam - Head of the City's Economic Department said that it has not been opened yet because the three highlights of the walking street including the fountain, the art flower garden and the walking street symbol have not been implemented yet because they are waiting for the opinion of the Department of Construction.

Delegate Ha Thanh Tinh - Vice Chairman of Vinh City People's Committee gave a speech explaining opinions on investment in key projects. Photo: Mai Hoa

Some delegates also expressed their frustration when 20-30 storey apartment projects with hundreds of apartments only invested in building one floor for parking, and even some apartment buildings only had a floor for motorbikes, with no parking space for cars, putting pressure on the city's infrastructure. There were even areas where cars from apartment buildings were parked on sidewalks and roads.

There is also the concern about the lack of investment in the centralized slaughterhouse, causing the situation of up to 45 small-scale slaughterhouses in residential areas; the conversion of market models; the settlement of collective housing areas; the lack of synchronous investment in the drainage system... are the contents that delegates reflect.