African swine fever continues, many localities lack land for destruction

Vinh city "suffocating"

The lack of land to bury pigs due to African swine fever is causing many localities in Nghe An a "headache", especially when the number of pigs being destroyed is on the rise.

The number of infected pigs forced to be destroyed in Vinh City is increasing, causing land funds to shrink. Photo: Quang An

In Vinh City, where the population is dense and houses are close together, finding a suitable space to destroy infected pigs is a difficult problem, especially in wards and communes located in the city center.

In Hung Dung ward, one of the inner-city localities of Vinh, up to now, 90 pigs infected with African swine fever with a total weight of over 3.5 tons have been destroyed. However, finding a place to bury the pigs that is both far from residential areas and on high ground, not near the ditch is very difficult.

Mr. Nguyen Phuc Trang - Vice Chairman of Hung Dung Ward People's Committee said: For farms with pigs infected with the disease, we will destroy them on the spot to both prevent the spread of the disease and save land. For small numbers of dead pigs in households, we have to move them to the ward cemetery for destruction. If the disease continues to develop complicatedly in the coming time, the number of dead pigs increases, then determining the location to destroy the pigs will be difficult, especially in the city's limited land fund.

Quang Tien Block, Hung Binh Ward (Vinh City) is a place where pigs died due to disease but there is no land to destroy the pigs. Photo: Quang An

In Hung Binh ward, a locality located in the middle of Vinh city, where the population density is high, finding a piece of land to destroy dead pigs is "unimaginable".

In early October, at Mr. Dau Van Xuan’s household in Quang Tien block, 6 pigs died with a total weight of nearly 400 kg. Hung Binh ward authorities could not find a place to destroy the pigs, so they had to contact Nghi Lien commune to “bury them”.

Mr. Ho Viet Thanh - Vice Chairman of Hung Binh Ward People's Committee said: Being a central ward of the city, burying pigs in the ward is impossible because we cannot find land and if we do, it will affect the residential environment. We have to ask Nghi Lien commune (a locality with an epidemic) to bury pigs at the land Nghi Lien commune organizes to destroy pigs.

When pigs die, the Hung Binh ward authorities must contact Nghi Lien commune to find a place to destroy the pigs. Photo: Quang An

Currently, African swine fever has covered Vinh City, with 16/25 wards and communes having the disease. The increasing number of pigs dying due to the disease has made localities confused in choosing locations to bury pigs, especially in inner-city and central wards and communes. As for suburban communes, land funds will also gradually become scarce if the disease continues to spread strongly in the coming time.

Rural areas in trouble

Ngoc Son Commune (Thanh Chuong) is not only a "hot" locality with the largest number of infected pigs in the district, but also has a very "closed" location for pig destruction.

People in Thanh Chuong district dumped dead pigs on the edge of Lam River. Photo: Van Ly

According to Mr. Thai Van An - Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, all agricultural and forestry land has been assigned to the people for management and use, and there is no more land to bury pigs. Therefore, 330 pigs of local people have been infected with the disease in the past. The commune had to destroy them in the cemetery areas of the hamlets. In some hamlets, due to the narrow cemetery area, pigs had to be destroyed in the cajuput forests.

Currently, there are about 5,000 pigs in the commune. If the epidemic continues, the number of pigs that must be destroyed will increase, and many hamlets will no longer have land for burial. Because the planned cemetery area is already narrow, burying pigs will affect the burial of the deceased.

Mr. Thai Van An - Chairman of People's Committee of Ngoc Son commune (Thanh Chuong)

Ngoc Son Commune had to destroy pigs in the people's planted forest area to reduce the load in the cemetery area. Photo: Xuan Hoang

In the same situation, Dong Van commune (Thanh Chuong) is worried about the lack of environmentally safe places to bury pigs. Mr. Nguyen Quoc Chuong - Chairman of Dong Van Commune People's Committee said: The entire agricultural land area has been divided among the people according to Decree 64, so when African swine fever occurs, the locality cannot find a suitable place to destroy pigs. However, the commune has planned a concentrated pig destruction area, but this land is low-lying, so it is often flooded.

Every time there is heavy rain, the whole pig culling area is flooded. At times like that, if there are pigs to be culled, it is very difficult to dig holes, forcing the pig culling team to scoop out all the water before being able to cull the pigs.

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Chuong - Chairman of Dong Van Commune People's Committee (Thanh Chuong)

Yen Thanh, Dien Chau, Quynh Luu districts... also faced a similar situation when having to bury tons of pigs with swine fever. That requires people and localities more than ever to raise awareness of disease prevention, not to throw dead pigs indiscriminately, causing environmental impacts.

African swine fever will continue to last, so many communes will run out of land to destroy pigs. Therefore, according to Mr. Ngo Duc Quynh - Deputy Director of the Provincial Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, the People's Committees at the district level need to have solutions on land issues so that localities that no longer have land funds have suitable locations to destroy pigs.