Nghe An will issue new prices for garbage collection and treatment.
(Baonghean) - In recent years, the amount of waste in Nghe An province has been increasing, especially in rural areas. Advanced waste treatment technology also requires higher costs, while the budget is still limited. Therefore, issuing a maximum price for waste collection and treatment is extremely necessary.
New waste collection and treatment costs only meet 49%
The current maximum price for waste collection and transportation in Nghe An province is clearly stated in Decision No. 74/2016/QD-UBND dated December 20, 2016. Accordingly, households not participating in business in wards in Vinh city are 8,000 VND/person/month, communes in the city are 6,000 VND/person/month. Wards in towns and districts are 5,000 VND/person/month and the remaining communes in the province are 4,000 VND/person/month. For households participating in production and service business, it is over 155,000 VND/household/month depending on scale, use of human resources...
According to the report of the Department of Finance, the total cost of collecting, transporting and treating waste in Nghe An province is currently 157.2 billion VND/year. However, the amount collected from the collection and transport service price according to the annual regulations is only 77.5 billion VND. Thus, the State budget has to compensate quite a lot.
Up to now, it has been shown that in some localities, although the maximum price framework prescribed in Decision No. 74/2016 has been applied, and the provincial budget annually allocates environmental career funds, compared to the funding needs for waste collection, transportation and treatment in some localities, it has only met 49% of the total demand.
 |
| Workers of Cua Lo Urban Environment and Tourism Services Joint Stock Company collect waste on the beach to welcome the tourist season. Graphics: Ton Duc - Photo: Lam Tung |
Cua Lo Town is the unit with the second largest total cost of collecting, transporting and treating waste in the province (after Vinh City) with 17.5 billion VND/year. These days, Mr. Vu Trung Thanh, owner of kiosk number 158 at Cua Lo beach, is busy with the work of repairing and cleaning the shop to welcome the tourist season.
Mr. Thanh shared: Because I run a restaurant, I pay the monthly garbage collection fee according to regulations at a price of over 300,000 VND/month. If the price increases, the collection quality must also be guaranteed, timely, on time, and fast.
 |
| Waste treatment at the new landfill site of Nghi Yen landfill (Nghi Loc). Photo by Lam Tung |
In Cua Lo town, the total volume of waste in the area is more than 18,000 tons/year, treated by landfill at Nghi Yen Waste Treatment Plant. The price of waste collection and transportation services currently only meets 22.1% of the total demand.
Especially as a tourist town, the issue of waste is always a concern of the town. Increasing the price of waste collection, transportation and treatment services is necessary.
Quynh Luu is also a locality with a large total budget for waste collection and treatment, at 11.8 billion VND/year. The main method of waste treatment is to collect waste at communal landfills and treat it by burial.
The amount of waste in Quynh Luu district is very large, estimated at about 100 tons/day. The current waste service fee only covers the cost of waste collection and transportation, while the cost of waste treatment is currently lacking. The district is proposing an increase of 30% - 50% compared to the current price) to ensure funding for thorough waste treatment.
In Nghi Loc district, currently 28/30 communes and towns have signed contracts with 2 environmental companies to collect garbage periodically with a frequency of 1-3 times/week (depending on the contract signed by each commune). 2 localities that do not sign contracts with environmental companies but collect and treat garbage themselves are Nghi Cong Bac and Nghi Cong Nam communes.
Explaining why he did not sign a contract with an environmental company, Mr. Nguyen Van Ly - Chairman of Nghi Cong Bac Commune People's Committee shared: Previously, the commune had a policy that each family should build a separate garbage treatment pit for each household to handle it themselves, plus the roads were far away, so we did not sign a contract with an environmental company.
 |
| 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 |
However, in the past 2 years, the amount of waste produced has been very large, the use of household trash pits has not been effective, and people's awareness is not high, so littering has occurred. "To reduce the overload of waste, we currently assign the women's association of 12 hamlets to collect and process waste every week.
However, the budget is not enough to implement. Each year, the commune can only support 30 million VND for 12 hamlets. This amount is only a motivational expense and cannot be calculated as the labor cost of environmental staff because the budget is limited. Therefore, increasing the waste fee is extremely necessary," Mr. Ly added.
Vinh City is the locality with the largest total budget for waste collection, transportation and treatment in the province, at 60.7 billion VND/year (accounting for 38.2% of the total budget of the province).
The city's consistent view is to increase the cost of collecting, transporting and treating waste. It is necessary to increase prices more strongly for production facilities, special industries with high risk of pollution, restaurants, beer and alcohol businesses...
The need to issue a maximum fee framework
In recent years, the population of Nghe An province has increased, the living needs of people have also increased, leading to a rapid increase in the amount of household waste, while the waste treatment infrastructure has not met the demand, leading to overload and high waste treatment costs.
Through the survey, the amount of waste from households has increased dramatically compared to previous survey data (in Vinh city and Cua Lo town, the average amount of waste is more than 0.6 - 0.7 kg/person/day, in Hung Nguyen district and Quynh Luu district, it is about 0.4 kg/person/day); the total amount of solid waste generated in the whole province is about 2,443.8 tons/day (in urban areas it is 1,879.95 tons/day, in rural areas it is about 563.85 tons/day), of which the amount of collected waste is 1,974 tons/day (about 80.79%).
 |
| Garbage piled up causing environmental pollution on the Lam River road through Hung Long commune (Hung Nguyen) recently. Photo: Lam Tung |
Currently, some districts, cities and towns are moving towards implementing waste incineration technology, helping to save land as well as reduce water pollution compared to the current traditional landfill method.
However, if using new technology, the unit price for waste treatment is approximately 410,000 VND/ton (while the unit price for proper landfill treatment is about 268,446 VND/ton), leading to increased costs for waste treatment.
Based on the above contents, to ensure sustainability in the collection, transportation and treatment of waste, it is necessary to promulgate regulations on maximum consumption prices for domestic waste treatment services using State budget funds in the province.
 |
| The population of Nghe An province is increasing, the living needs of people are also increasing, leading to a rapid increase in the amount of household waste. Photo: Lam Tung - Quang An. |