Concerns about waste in rural areas
(Baonghean) - Rural waste is a burning issue in many localities. The amount of waste is increasing and not being collected in a timely manner, causing environmental pollution, significantly affecting the lives of rural people.
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 pass by, but to avoid the pile of garbage, they crash into each other…”
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| 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 streets, using the roadsides as garbage collection points such as in Da Son, Dong Son, Luu Son communes...
The problem of using the roadside as a garbage collection point is also a problem that the people there lack a feasible solution, 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 cause pollution to people's houses. So 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 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 of over 22,000 m2, landfill volume of 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.
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| 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 set up 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 now retired, now only my daughter and I do this job. Although the work is hard, the income only fluctuates from 2.5 to 3 million VND per month.
“Every year we sign a contract with Dien Chau Green Environment Company to collect garbage with a total cost of over 800 million VND. 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.”
Up to now, Dien Chau district has 23/39 communes and towns that hire 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.
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| After Tet, the road along Lam River, passing through Hung Loi Commune, Hung Nguyen District, was covered by garbage, 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.
Lack of funding and human resourcesDiscussing this issue, Mr. Dang Ba Duong - Director of Hung Nguyen Green Environment Company said: The amount of garbage in Hung Nguyen district has increased dramatically, especially during Tet, leading to overload in garbage collection and treatment.
Currently, the company's human resources only have 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 dong, in which some localities incurred large garbage costs such as Hung Nguyen town (200 million dong), Hung Tay commune (100 million dong)..." - Mr. Duong said.
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| 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, on average only meeting 55% of the total demand. 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 much. Most communes in rural areas only have temporary landfills and the landfills are always overloaded.
In many communes, garbage collection only stops at the transfer point, not solving the entire garbage collection problem in the area. Moreover, most localities do not have garbage classification and recycling activities.
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| 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 people about littering, and 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 the condition that 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.