Vinh City needs to focus on handling environmental pollution hotspots.

Before entering the working session with Vinh City People's Committee,monitoring teamconducted inspections at two locations that are still on the list of locations causing serious environmental pollution in the city, namely Dong Vinh landfill and Nghe An Oncology Hospital.

Dong Vinh landfill still has about 84,000 tons of waste that has not been fully processed. Photo: Tien Dong

At Dong Vinh landfill, this was originally a spontaneous landfill formed in the 1970s, a place to dump waste for Vinh city, and stopped receiving waste at the end of 2011. In parallel with the dumping of waste at Dong Vinh landfill, the Provincial People's Committee approved investment in the Seraphin Waste Treatment Plant Project, with the goal of processing daily household waste and waste buried at Dong Vinh landfill. However, this project only operated for a while, and stopped operating in 2014. To date, there are about 84,000 tons of waste remaining.

Inspection team at Dong Vinh landfill. Photo: Tien Dong

After the Dong Vinh landfill stopped operating, the Vinh City People's Committee also implemented a project to thoroughly treat environmental pollution at the Dong Vinh landfill. The amount of waste transported to the Nghi Yen Solid Waste Treatment Complex was about 100,000 tons. However, when the project was established, a part of the waste from the Dong Vinh landfill (located next to the Seraphin Waste Treatment Plant) was not included in the project, leading to backlogs and environmental pollution that had not been thoroughly treated.

Currently, Vinh City People's Committee has also established a project to transport this remaining waste out of the city with a total cost of about 15 billion VND.

The wastewater treatment system at Nghe An Oncology Hospital focuses on treating wastewater for 3 facilities. Photo: Tien Dong

At Nghe An Oncology Hospital, this facility has currently invested in a wastewater treatment system with a capacity of 400m³/day and night and officially put into operation since December 2019. This is a common treatment point for all 3 hospitals (Nghe An Oncology Hospital, Trauma - Orthopedics Hospital and Provincial Hematology and Blood Transfusion Center). However, the operation process often encounters problems, the quality of wastewater after treatment is unstable, often exceeding the permitted standards. The investor, Nghe An Department of Health, has continuously directed relevant parties to promptly find a radical solution, however, to date, the remediation and treatment have not been completed. The hospital is still on the list of units causing environmental pollution.

The monitoring team inspected the wastewater treatment site at Nghe An Oncology Hospital. Photo: Tien Dong

In addition, at the second facility of Nghe An Oncology Hospital in Nghi Lien commune, the wastewater treatment system has completed the construction process and has been put into trial operation. The results of monitoring the quality of wastewater after treatment showed good results, meeting current standards.

However, due to the investment progress according to the Construction Contract, the project has not yet reached the acceptance stage, so the Hospital is not yet qualified to be granted an Environmental License, which means that the second facility has not yet been granted an operating license, and cannot sign a health insurance medical examination and treatment contract with the insurance agency. Meanwhile, the people's need for health insurance medical examination and treatment is extremely urgent.

Wastewater at the wastewater treatment system of Nghe An Oncology Hospital has not yet met standards. Photo: Tien Dong.

Working with the Vinh City People's Committee, the monitoring team also gathered information related to compliance with environmental protection laws in the area. According to statistics, the current volume of domestic solid waste generated in the city is about 300 tons/day and night. All waste is collected, transported and treated by landfill at the Nghi Yen Solid Waste Treatment Complex. In addition, about 10 tons of ordinary industrial solid waste is generated per day and night; about 5 tons of hazardous waste, mainly sludge, waste oil, and hazardous medical waste.

The monitoring delegation worked with Vinh City People's Committee. Photo: Tien Dong

Regarding surface water resources, the city has two rivers, Vinh River and Rao Dung River, which receive a large amount of surface water and wastewater from the city and neighboring areas through a series of drainage works. However, environmental monitoring data in 2022 shows that the water quality of Rao Dung River and Vinh River water sources have shown signs of pollution.

Not to mention, the city currently has 6 regulating lakes included in the surface water environment monitoring program of the Provincial People's Committee with a monitoring frequency of 6 times/year. However, because wastewater and waste from residential areas mostly flow into these 6 regulating lakes, in recent years the regulating lakes have been polluted. Monitoring results in 2022 show that: NH4+ parameters are still high (Central Park Lake, Bay Mau Lake), E.coli pollution at monitoring points of Vinh Tan Lake and Goong Lake has exceeded the permitted standards.

Comrade Nguyen Sy Dieu - Vice Chairman of Vinh City People's Committee answered some issues raised by the monitoring delegation. Photo: Tien Dong

The air pollution situation in the city is also of concern. The cause is determined to be the activities of production facilities in industrial zones and small industrial clusters scattered in residential areas. In addition, there are also emissions from means of transport.

At the meeting, the monitoring delegation also requested the Vinh City People's Committee to clarify a number of issues related to environmental pollution to add to the report. Especially the situation of domestic wastewater overflowing into the North Canal, leading to environmental pollution. The city needs to clarify the causes and responsibilities in the construction and design of the wastewater collection system at the North Canal, to avoid similar situations in the future.

Recently, the North Canal has been heavily polluted. Photo: Nhat Lan

In addition, the city also needs to strengthen the supervision of environmental pollution treatment at some production facilities that have been fined. There needs to be a long-term solution for the collection, transportation and treatment of solid waste. Because currently, the Nghi Yen Solid Waste Treatment Complex, although only allowed to receive waste from Vinh city, Cua Lo town, Dien Chau town and Nghi Loc district, in reality, waste from many localities is brought here, which leads to the risk that by 2030 this waste treatment area will be overloaded...

Responding to some comments from the monitoring delegation, Mr. Nguyen Sy Dieu - Vice Chairman of Vinh City People's Committee said: The direct cause affecting the city's environmental quality is the urbanization process, economic development and rapid population growth... creating pressure on the amount of solid waste and wastewater. On the other hand, the water collection system throughout the city is a common system, not separating rainwater and wastewater, so there is still a situation of wastewater flowing into regulating lakes causing environmental pollution, affecting the lives of surrounding residents.

Comrade Nguyen Nam Dinh - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council, Head of the Supervisory Delegation worked with Vinh City People's Committee. Photo: Tien Dong

In the coming time, the city will continue to invest, renovate and upgrade technical infrastructure for environmental protection, completely resolve pollution, especially in regulating lakes, the North Canal, and the Citadel moat. Mobilize resources, speed up the implementation of priority infrastructure projects and develop urban areas that adapt to climate change...

Concluding the meeting, Comrade Nguyen Nam Dinh - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council, Head of the Supervisory Delegation requested the Vinh City People's Committee to improve the propaganda work on environmental protection for the people. Closely follow the city planning to build environmental treatment infrastructure. Focus on handling hot spots of environmental pollution...

Comrade Nguyen Nam Dinh also said that after the meeting, the monitoring delegation will have a meeting with relevant departments and branches before working with the Provincial People's Committee. At the same time, the report will be completed to submit to the Provincial People's Council for comments before issuing the Resolution at the upcoming Provincial People's Council meeting.