Efforts for clean cities

(Baonghean) -A public service enterprise has not been established to concentrate resources on environmental sanitation; there is no centralized waste storage and treatment site according to the planning... but with the efforts to overcome difficulties of Thai Hoa Town Urban Environment Company Limited and the wards and communes in the area, the Northwest Town has been ensured to be clean and beautiful...

Thanks to ensuring environmental sanitation, Thai Hoa town is clean and beautiful during Tet.

After the bustling and hurried Tet shopping days, the areas around Hieu market, the 5-way intersection, and Bau Sen park are full of garbage. Garbage of all kinds: daily household garbage, unsold flowers and ornamental plants are all piled up and dumped along the roads and sidewalks... Every year, the "ultimatum" order of Thai Hoa Town Urban Environment Company on the night of the 30th of Tet is to concentrate human resources and means to collect all garbage and transport it to a temporary gathering place to return a clean and beautiful environment for people to enjoy Tet and welcome Spring. The company has 28 people divided into 3 groups using 3 existing dump trucks to collect garbage. Because there is no centralized garbage dump according to the plan, Thai Hoa Urban Environment Company has only reached out to collect garbage in 2 central wards including Hoa Hieu and Quang Tien. Mr. Tran Van Mao, Director of the Company, said that the average amount of garbage per day in Thai Hoa Town is about 20 tons, and during Tet holiday it is about double, about 40-50 tons. Therefore, to ensure environmental sanitation during Tet, in addition to overtime and extra trips, the unit must mobilize all forces, promptly motivate officers and employees with thoughtful Tet gifts. The company director himself was also present at the scene to directly direct and collect and transport garbage with his colleagues.

After more than 5 years of establishment, the issue of environmental sanitation, waste collection and treatment is still facing many shortcomings. The town does not have a centralized landfill or a waste treatment system. Waste in the two central wards of Hoa Hieu and Quang Tien is collected at the landfill in Dong Tam 1 block (Hoa Hieu ward). This landfill is temporary and is currently overloaded, causing pollution that affects the lives of the surrounding people. Therefore, the issue of polluting landfills has become a "hot" issue, causing concern for voters at the meetings of the People's Council at ward and town levels. Another problem that is still lacking is that, although the town currently has an Urban Environmental Company with the function of collecting waste and handling environmental sanitation issues, it is a type of private enterprise, not a public enterprise, so its functions and tasks, and the maximum mobilization of resources to serve the environmental cause of the town have not yet been implemented. Therefore, to ensure the environmental sanitation work in the inner city, in Thai Hoa Town, in addition to the core force of the Urban Environment Company, the wards and communes have synchronously deployed many solutions to support the good implementation of this work.

As in Hoa Hieu ward, the central ward of the town, where many trading points and entertainment areas generate a lot of waste, the ward has directly contracted with the Urban Environment Company, spending nearly 400 million VND each year to collect all waste and clean up some main roads passing through the area. Mr. Duong Ngoc Trung, Chairman of the Ward People's Committee, said: Although the ward has an environmental sanitation contract with the Town Urban Environment Company, in order to ensure the environment in the area, in addition to supervising the implementation of the company's contract, the activities of "Community Self-Management Groups" in residential areas are still maintained. On the occasion of Lunar New Year or holidays, the role of self-management groups is promoted in urging and supervising households to maintain environmental sanitation according to regulations. On the night of the 30th of Tet, the ward leaders all went to the scene to wish a happy new year and encourage environmental workers who are collecting waste in the area.

Currently, the Urban Environment Company's capacity to invest in transportation equipment is still limited, affecting the synchronization, process, and effectiveness of environmental sanitation work in the area. Currently, the Urban Environment Company does not have specialized garbage transport vehicles, but only 3 regular trucks with high-mounted bins, so it is still very manual in loading, unloading, and transporting garbage. Mr. Ho Thanh Phong, Head of the Town's Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said: "Currently, the allocation of the environmental career budget to invest in purchasing bin systems and improved garbage collection vehicles for wards and communes in the area has not been implemented. The town wants to support the Urban Environment Company but cannot, because this is not a type of public utility enterprise."

Thus, it can be seen that the environmental sanitation work of Thai Hoa Town is currently inadequate in terms of scale, type, collection and loading capacity... However, with the determination to make great efforts to make the Northwest town clean and beautiful, especially before, during and after the Lunar New Year so that people can celebrate the New Year happily, right before Tet, the Town People's Committee has issued instructions to wards and communes to notify residential groups and households to strictly collect and gather household waste at the right location, date and time according to regulations during Tet to create conditions for the Urban Environment Company to collect.

Hoa Hieu Ward - the central ward of the town also widely propagated to households, traders in and around the market area to understand the awareness of environmental sanitation and waste collection. On streets such as Chu Huy Man Street, 3/2 Street..., in addition to cleaning the road, sidewalks, and pavements, residential groups also decorated lantern clusters and trimmed trees. To ensure waste collection and environmental sanitation, the Town People's Committee is focusing on urging contractors to construct a concentrated waste dump on a planned area of ​​20 hectares in Nghia Hoa Commune according to the signed contract schedule. Thus, in March, according to the progress of the phase 1 concentrated waste dump, an area of ​​7.8 hectares will be temporarily put into use, which will be the most basic condition for Thai Hoa Town to fundamentally solve environmental problems to make the Northwest Town clean, beautiful, and civilized.

Huu Nghia