Rural waste treatment: need for synchronous solutions

(Baonghean) - Collecting and treating waste, improving the rural environment is one of the important criteria in the national criteria for new rural development. However, rural waste is currently becoming a challenge in environmental protection, economic, cultural and social development of many localities in the province.

Garbage becomesproblem

Walking along the coastal communes of Dien Chau district such as Dien Hung, Dien Hai, Dien Kim, Dien Bich, Dien Thanh, Dien Thinh... we can easily see garbage everywhere. The land is narrow, the population is dense, the amount of household garbage that people in these communes throw away every day is very large and most of it is thrown haphazardly in vacant lots, canals, especially the coastal concrete roads between communes. Many people participating in traffic through this route are "tortured" by the stench of garbage. Dien Thanh tourist beach, along with Thoi creek, Van creek, Dien Ngoc fishing port... garbage accumulates, causing blockage of the flow.

The increasingly large landfills, stretching along the coast, not only spoil the beauty of the village but also seriously affect the water and air resources, causing the risk of disease outbreaks. Mr. Le Van Thuan - Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Dien Chau district said: "Since 2011, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment has advised the District People's Committee to issue many documents requesting communes to promote environmental protection awareness, handle the situation of people dumping waste indiscriminately, and build separate centralized landfills. However, due to the limited awareness of environmental protection among the people, and the authorities at all levels have not really taken action, the situation has not improved."

Garbage overflows onto National Highway 7 (near Muong Xen Town, Ky Son District)

In Quynh Luu district and Hoang Mai town, along Mai Giang river, Quen creek, coast, and sandbank, garbage is everywhere. Although some communes have garbage collection points, they are overloaded in a short time. Not only in coastal localities but also in Quynh Van, Quynh Tan, Quynh Thach, Quynh Hau, Quynh Hong, Cau Giat town... garbage is "present" everywhere. Because there are no specific instructions or regulations on garbage disposal from local authorities, each household handles garbage in its own way. And the common way of handling garbage is to throw it anywhere it can be thrown. When one household sees another one dumping it, they join in and as a result, spontaneous garbage dumps are formed and expanded in both area and height.

A typical example is at Ngan slope, located on the border between Quynh Van and Quynh Tan communes, a spontaneous landfill was formed more than a year ago, now almost as high as a person's head, with flies, rats, and bugs growing and thriving. Mr. Ho Ngoc Dung - Vice Chairman of Quynh Luu District People's Committee said: "Although Ngoc Son landfill, which is over 5 hectares wide, is now in operation, collecting about 30 - 40 tons of waste every day, it still cannot meet the demand, because according to estimates, the entire district discharges about 80 - 100 tons of household waste every day. The current situation of rural waste in the district has become urgent".

In the districts of Hung Nguyen, Nam Dan, Nghia Dan, Thanh Chuong, Do Luong, the story of rural waste is an urgent problem. It is easy to see that on the Lam dike running along the communes of Hung Linh, Hung Long, Hung Khanh, Hung Lam, Hung Nhan... garbage is overflowing, emitting a strong stench. Mr. Nguyen Van Thuong, in Hung Long commune, said: "To hire a garbage truck, each person has to pay 3,000 VND per month. However, every 10 days the truck comes to collect the garbage once, so the garbage piles up, causing serious pollution. Households living near the landfill have to close their doors tightly all day to avoid the stench from entering their homes."

As one of the mountainous districts with the greatest tourism potential in our province, Con Cuong currently does not have a landfill. Without a collection service, people dump garbage everywhere. Along National Highway 7, through the town or under the bridges, garbage and rocks are piled up. Mr. Nguyen Huy Chuong - Head of the Con Cuong Department of Culture and Information said: "The district has recently approved the Project "Building and developing tourism in Con Cuong district in the period of 2013 - 2015" with the focus on developing eco-tourism. However, to effectively implement the project, one of the issues that needs to be urgently resolved is household waste. Although the population of the district is not large, in the long term, if there is no landfill or treatment site, garbage will be everywhere, affecting the tourism environment. However, the difficulty is still the cost of building a centralized, large-scale landfill."

Household trash of Hung Tien commune people

Multiple modelsefficient garbage collection

While many localities are struggling to deal with waste, some communes have come up with good and creative ways to minimize environmental pollution in the best way. A typical example is Nam Xuan commune, one of the vegetable-growing communes of Nam Dan district. Previously, like many other localities, the problem of waste became a headache when people had the habit of littering along canal banks, fields, ponds, etc., causing loss of village beauty and environmental pollution. To overcome this situation, in 2012, Nam Xuan Commune People's Committee built a centralized waste dump, covering an area of ​​1,500m2, with a total investment of over 140 million VND. The commune also supported the construction of 1,532 new 2-compartment waste pits for households (accounting for 95% of households); Build 166 concrete tanks to contain waste, located in convenient locations, next to main roads leading to the fields to make it convenient for people to dispose of bottles and pesticide containers used in agricultural production.

Organizations such as the Farmers' Association, Women's Association, Youth Union, etc., have stepped up propaganda and mobilized people not to throw garbage and animal carcasses into ponds, lakes, and canals, and to consciously collect and dispose of used pesticide packaging in garbage tanks. After collecting garbage at the tanks, hamlets send people to transfer this waste to the commune's garbage dump for disposal. Mr. Nguyen Sy Tan in hamlet 4, Nam Xuan commune said: "Since the garbage tanks were built, the fields, village roads and alleys have become cleaner, and conflicts related to garbage have also disappeared."

A collection model in Hung Tien commune (Hung Nguyen) is considered highly effective. With more than 700 households and 3,100 people, the amount of garbage that Hung Tien people throw away every day is quite large, about 3-4 tons. While the commune does not have a centralized landfill or garbage collection services, to prevent environmental pollution caused by garbage, since 2008, households in Hung Tien have had a fairly effective way of handling garbage at home. Each family digs garbage pits or, if they have better conditions, builds garbage tanks. Garbage is collected in pits and tanks and sorted right at the source. The amount of easily decomposable waste is buried as fertilizer for use in production; non-decomposable waste such as glass bottles, nylon, plastic ... is collected and gathered in a place designated by the commune. After 5 years of implementation, the household garbage treatment model of Hung Tien farmers has given the commune a new look. While in other localities, especially the border areas between communes, the amount of waste is overwhelming and uncontrollable, in Hung Tien, the village roads and alleys are clean and tidy, and the living environment has improved significantly.

In addition to the models launched by the government, with the participation of mass organizations, especially women, the collection and classification of waste in some localities has been carried out quite well. For example, in Tan Phu commune (Tan Ky), since August 2011, the Women's Union has established the Club "Classifying waste at source and limiting the use of plastic bags". When participating in the club, women are trained by the Women's Union officials and equipped with knowledge on how to classify and properly treat waste. Up to now, the club has really had a positive impact on women's awareness. Most women in the commune have used tools such as baskets, baskets... instead of plastic bags when going to the market; know how to classify waste in the family, become active propagandists to mobilize family members and neighbors to participate.

In Do Luong, under the leadership of the Women's Union at all levels, waste collection teams were established in each village and hamlet, each household voluntarily paid 4,000 VND per month to pay the collection team. In addition, the last two days of the week are considered environmental sanitation days for the hamlets. Women sweep the village roads and alleys, clear sewers, and collect household waste at the alley entrances for the collection team to transport to the commune's centralized landfill. Up to now, the whole province has dozens of "Women with the Environment" clubs; hundreds of "Self-managed waste collection" women's groups... From these models, Women's Unions at all levels have contributed to raising awareness among members and the community to join in protecting the environment; gradually forming civilized habits and behaviors, thereby contributing to perfecting the criteria for new rural areas.

Need for synchronous participation

From the effectiveness of the above models, it can be seen that where local authorities and organizations actively participate, people's awareness of environmental sanitation is raised, limiting the situation of littering causing widespread pollution. However, at present, many communes do not really care about environmental sanitation as well as managing the collection and treatment of rural waste. Therefore, according to Mr. Ho Ngoc Dung - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district, communes need to direct hamlets to publicly implement environmental sanitation conventions, have measures to punish households that violate, and at the same time let households monitor each other, and mobilize each other to protect the environment. On the other hand, in the planning of new rural construction, communes need to set aside a certain area for garbage collection and within the village, hamlet, there should be a place to dump garbage; contract with environmental cooperatives or local environmental service companies to collect inorganic waste and transport it to the district or provincial landfill for treatment".

Mr. Dang Anh Dung - Standing Deputy Secretary of Thanh Chuong District Party Committee said: “Every week, localities should organize "Environmental Sanitation Day" to clean up the surrounding environment, especially village roads, alleys, and places with a lot of waste that must be collected and transported to treatment facilities. In addition, in the work of collecting waste and cleaning the environment, districts should build several typical communes; each commune should build several typical hamlets; each hamlet should build several typical families to replicate widely. In considering the recognition of cultural families and cultural hamlets, it is necessary to seriously consider the criteria on environmental sanitation. Organizations need to strengthen propaganda to raise awareness of environmental sanitation for members, considering environmental sanitation as a criterion for evaluating and classifying branches and members at the end of the year”.

Mr. Ho Si Dung - Head of the Department of Environmental Protection (Department of Natural Resources and Environment) said: We can easily see that the authorities and organizations in many localities are still confused in environmental protection in general, and waste collection and treatment in particular. The propaganda for people about environmental protection awareness as well as the proposal of inspection and punishment measures for littering are still limited. Many localities have included environmental sanitation as one of the criteria for evaluating the title of cultural family, but it seems that when reviewing, they "forgot" this criterion. Some localities have planned a common landfill, but transporting waste from each residential area to the landfill is also a difficult problem when there are no specialized vehicles to transport waste. Not to mention many waste collection points are not organized according to planning, causing local pollution. Meanwhile, the socialization of waste collection and treatment has not been well implemented: private waste collection facilities have not been established; environmental sanitation fee collection in rural areas still faces many difficulties... Some districts such as Quynh Luu, Thanh Chuong, Tan Ky... have waste collection service units, but waste collection is only carried out in towns and neighboring communes.

According to Decision No. 494/QD - UBND.ĐTXD dated February 4, 2013 of the Provincial People's Committee on approving the planning for solid waste management in the province until 2020. Accordingly, from now until 2015, the whole province strives to build 15 concentrated solid waste treatment areas; by 2020, it will be 15 areas. Thus, in the coming time, districts that do not have domestic solid waste landfills, if the project has been approved, need to urgently build and put them into use; if the project has not been established, it is necessary to speed up the progress of selecting locations and establishing construction investment projects; To overcome financial difficulties, the People's Committees of districts, towns and cities need to have socialization policies to attract individuals and organizations to participate in the collection and treatment of domestic solid waste in the whole province.

Currently, there are a number of domestic and foreign companies and corporations with investment projects in localities in the issue of domestic solid waste treatment and have been approved by the Provincial People's Committee, such as Costruct Company of Italy investing in Thai Hoa Town; Tien Thinh Joint Stock Company in Quynh Luu; Trung Viet Joint Stock Company in Hung Nguyen... This is a good sign for solid waste treatment activities in general and rural waste in particular. Hopefully, with the synchronous and active participation of all levels of government, departments, and organizations, the problem of waste in particular and environmental sanitation in general in rural areas will be improved, people will feel secure in moving towards economic, cultural, and social development, promoting the construction of new rural areas.

Minh Quan - Trieu Duong