Waste concerns in rural areas

Fumbling with trash
Passing the road from the central intersection of Do Luong town to Dong Son commune (Do Luong) every afternoon, anyone would be upset because both sides of the road are very dirty and smelly due to garbage. The road is more than 400m long, located right in the center of the district, and is extremely dirty.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Suu, a resident doing business here, said: “The fact that many businesses and traders dump garbage indiscriminately on the street has caused dirt, pollution and traffic insecurity. Sometimes there are huge piles of garbage in the middle of the road, some people riding motorbikes passing by, trying to avoid the piles of garbage, have crashed into each other…”

Garbage on the road from Do Luong town to Dong Son commune (photo taken on March 1, 2019) Photo: Nguyen Long

Not only on main roads, many rural traffic routes in some communes in Do Luong district are also dumping garbage on the road, using the roadside as a garbage collection point such as in Da Son, Dong Son, Luu Son communes...

Using the roadside as a garbage collection point is also a problem that the local people lack a feasible solution for, because that area does not have its own garbage collection point, far from residential areas. If the garbage is collected inside the village road, it will pollute the houses of the people. Therefore, the garbage is brought to the main roads.
According to statistics, for more than 2 years now, in Do Luong district, there are nearly 368 blocks - hamlets in 33 communes and towns that have organized the implementation of the temporary waste collection and treatment project. The town and 12 communes and some units have signed contracts with specialized companies to collect and transport waste to the district's centralized landfill in Hong Son commune.

However, up to now, in some communes, environmental pollution still occurs at temporary landfills and collection points on national highways, provincial roads, and district roads. In addition, a current reality is that: the district's centralized landfill located in Hong Son commune has an area of ​​over 4 hectares, with 4 landfill areas, each area is over 22,000 m2, the landfill volume is 143,000 m3, very small compared to the amount of waste of 33 communes and towns. Therefore, currently, only 12 communes and towns collect and treat waste, along with domestic waste of Do Luong General Hospital.

Collecting rural waste in hamlet 4, Dien Nguyen commune (Dien Chau). Photo: Quang An

Not only Do Luong, in Dien Chau and Hung Nguyen districts, the garbage situation is also struggling to find a solution. Mr. Ngo Van Thang in Hamlet 4, Dien Nguyen Commune (Dien Chau) is still working hard to collect garbage for the hamlet. This job has been going on for the past 2 years, but after each Tet holiday, he does not have a day off.

Mr. Thang shared: Before, when there was no landfill, people arbitrarily dumped garbage. After the landfill was built in 2016, we established a team of 5 people to collect garbage for the neighborhood. However, due to the hard work, low income, and the toxicity, 3 people have quit, now only my daughter and I do this job. Although the work is hard, the income only fluctuates between 2.5 - 3 million VND per month.

“Every year, we sign a contract with Dien Chau Green Environment Company to collect garbage at a total cost of over VND800 million. According to the contract, the company will collect 10 times per month, however, the amount of garbage has increased, so the collection work is still not thorough.”

Nguyen Van Dung - Vice Chairman of Dien Ngoc Commune People's Committee

Up to now, Dien Chau district has 23/39 communes and towns hiring 3 companies to directly collect and transport waste to the province's centralized landfill for treatment, the rest is handled by the communes themselves. Most communes hire local people to collect waste and transport it to the landfill for burning or burial, however, the efficiency of waste treatment is not high.

After Tet, the road along Lam River, through Hung Loi Commune, Hung Nguyen District, has garbage occupying half the road, forcing cars to go in the opposite direction. Photo: QA

In Hung Nguyen district, the amount of waste in the area is estimated at 22,000 tons/year, mainly treated by incineration technology at Nghi Yen Waste Treatment Plant. However, due to limited funding, waste is still left haphazardly and collected slowly, most clearly along the Lam River dike and at the markets. It is known that all 23 communes and towns in the district have signed contracts with environmental companies to handle this problem, but it is still not thorough.

Currently, the company has only 40 workers and 8 garbage trucks, the company works continuously but still cannot handle the problem thoroughly. “The cost of garbage collection is an extremely difficult problem. The current collection level is not enough to meet the demand. In 2018 alone, our company had to compensate for the cost of garbage collection of hundreds of millions of VND, in which some localities incurred large garbage costs such as Hung Nguyen town (200 million VND), Hung Tay commune (100 million VND)...” - Mr. Duong said.

Waste treatment using an incinerator system at Nghi Yen landfill. Photo: Lam Tung

According to reports from the districts, up to now, compared to the demand, the budget for collecting, transporting and treating domestic waste in the localities is still difficult, meeting only 55% of the total demand on average. Besides the budget issue, people's awareness is also a reason why the waste situation is increasingly overloaded.

According to the regulations of the National Target Program on New Rural Development, each commune must have a landfill, but up to now, the number of communes with landfills is not many. Most communes in rural areas only have temporary landfills and the landfills are always overloaded.

In many communes, waste collection only stops at the transfer point, not solving the entire waste collection problem in the area. Furthermore, most localities do not have waste sorting and recycling activities.

Garbage piled up for many days on N5 road through Nghi My commune (Nghi Loc) (photo taken on March 1, 2019). Photo by Lam Tung

The situation of waste accumulation in rural areas is increasingly serious, causing environmental pollution and disease outbreaks. Localities need to promote more strongly the awareness of littering among people, and at the same time coordinate with environmental companies to thoroughly handle waste.

Most environmental companies are currently facing the same situation of having to work overtime and increase the number of collection days and hours (in conditions where they cannot add more workers or garbage trucks due to lack of funds). Many localities are also calculating and proposing to increase the price of waste collection, transportation and treatment services to help deal with the current problems.