Rural waste treatment in Dien Chau

(Baonghean) - Previously, due to the large amount of household waste, industrial waste, and handicraft waste that was not collected, Dien Chau district had many hot spots of environmental pollution. To overcome this, the district directed 32 communes to build centralized landfills, organize environmental sanitation fees, and form waste collection and transportation teams, with an average collected waste rate of 83%.

Waste classification after collection in Dien Bich commune (Dien Chau).

Dien Tho commune has Nho Lam market which is the wholesale hub for the communes in the southern part of Dien Chau, with many people passing by and a large amount of waste. On the other hand, due to the high population density, the need for waste collection and treatment is very urgent. However, the difficulty is that the commune budget is not available for investment. Therefore, the commune held a meeting with the people and the Commune People's Council approved the mobilization of contributions of 30,000 VND/year per household, which is nearly 7 million VND; at the same time, the commune allocated budget support. Thanks to that, since 2004, Dien Tho has built a landfill with an area of ​​2,000m2, with a total investment of more than 11 million VND. At first, the Commune People's Committee collected waste fees and established a collection team, but after a while, this plan encountered problems. Because the collection team is under the Commune People's Committee, it cannot promote the self-management role of the hamlets.

Even due to the local mentality, "each family's light shines", sometimes people in one neighborhood throw garbage to another neighborhood, leading to conflicts between residential areas. Therefore, the commune has assigned the villages to collect fees and pay for people to collect and transport garbage to the centralized landfill, the commune only urges and supervises. The villages only have to pay 10% of the environmental fund to the commune to pay for the workers to classify, process and materials (gasoline, environmental treatment solutions) at the centralized landfill. The amount of waste in the commune is nearly 200m3/month, but because it is proactively classified and processed, the amount is limited. As the person who proposed and made the plan to build a centralized landfill, Mr. Dang Quang Trung - Vice Chairman of Dien Tho Commune People's Committee said: "Before introducing the current schedule of collecting garbage every 10 days, the commune calculated that if garbage is collected 2-3 times a week, people will have to pay a higher fee than the current level of 40,000 VND/household/year. Therefore, people must be aware of littering and need to classify garbage at the source to limit the amount of waste". Walking on the clean village road, Mr. Doan Van Be, Head of Hamlet 2, Dien Tho Commune, excitedly said: "Since the centralized landfill and garbage collection date and time, the village roads and alleys have been completely clean. Each section of the road is assigned to the hamlet organizations to be in charge of and monitor, so the hamlet does not have to remind much. Collecting environmental sanitation fees is also simpler, the hamlet only needs to notify and people will fully comply".

Coastal communes such as Dien Bich, Dien Kim, Dien Ngoc... have also made great strides in waste treatment and environmental sanitation. A typical example is Dien Bich commune, before 2012, which was the most pressing location for waste, from the hamlet road to the Dien Kim bridgehead, the dike... large and small bags of garbage were thrown everywhere, even animal carcasses, causing environmental pollution. This situation forced the commune Party Committee and government to take action. Based on the requirements and instructions of the district, Dien Bich commune registered to build a "smart mass mobilization" model on environmental sanitation with the district to focus on propaganda and mobilizing people to change their awareness, give up the habit of littering; at the same time, find measures to plan temporary markets, flea markets and invest in concentrated landfills in the commune. Up to now, after nearly 3 years of implementation, Dien Bich has completed a fairly spacious market, bringing households from the temporary market along the inter-commune road to meet, contributing to ensuring traffic safety and environmental sanitation.

Regarding the landfill, after 3 years of preparation and mobilization (from 2011 to 2014), with a collection rate of 40,000 VND/labor/year, Dien Bich built a centralized landfill project in accordance with the planning, with an area of ​​over 4,000m2, worth 670 million VND. Mr. Nguyen Viet Man - Secretary of the Party Committee of Dien Bich commune excitedly said: "Since June 2014, when the centralized landfill came into operation, 8/8 hamlets have established garbage collection teams, collecting garbage twice a week on Tuesday and Saturday. Currently, the commune has assigned hamlets to collect garbage fees from 15,000 - 20,000 VND/household/year, the commune only collects 10% to cover the costs at the centralized landfill, the rest is left to the hamlets for collection costs. Currently, the amount of daily garbage is very large, nearly 2 tons per day, so the commune is continuing to consider options for the landfill to be used effectively". Not only investing in the centralized landfill, with the support of associations, people in Dien Bich, Dien Ngoc, Dien Kim communes... have boldly borrowed capital to build sanitary auxiliary works. Up to now, over 60 - 70% of households in the above coastal communes have sanitary auxiliary works. Thanks to that, the quality of environmental sanitation in residential areas has been significantly improved. The sea dyke of Dien Bich and Dien Kim communes, which used to be a hot spot for waste, has now become a cool, clean walking street.

After 3 years of implementing the Project with Decision No. 16 "Replicating the model of collecting, transporting and treating environmental sanitation waste in the area", 32/39 communes in Dien Chau district have had centralized landfills and formed relatively well-operated garbage collection teams. The remaining 7 communes that do not have landfills are Dien Nguyen, Dien Phuc, Dien Xuan, Dien Truong, Dien Tan, Dien Loi, Dien Ky because they have not planned the land fund and arranged the budget or are in the process of construction... Mr. Ngo Dinh Tuu - Deputy Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Dien Chau district said: Since Project 16, although the district has had budget difficulties, in order to encourage and motivate localities and communes to build landfills of over 500m2 that meet standards, in addition to supporting land allocation, the district has supported an additional 50 million VND; annually, additional support is provided for trash bins, carts... so the communes have been more active. Up to now, the environmental situation and waste treatment in the area have been fundamentally improved.

However, from the practical study of construction and operation of concentrated landfills in communes, we found that, along with infrastructure construction, communes need to provide scientific guidance on waste collection plans, and move towards on-site classification measures, both to minimize pollution and to increase landfill capacity. In reality, besides Dien Tho and Dien Kim communes, after the waste is brought to the concentrated landfill and proactively classified and treated, there are still some communes where garbage trucks dump it haphazardly, not according to planning and areas, but leave it to the collection team. The average amount of waste collected in the district is 63%, 8% higher than the same period, but there is still a large amount of waste that has not been collected, so Dien Chau needs to be more determined in this work. Dien Chau has not yet built a concentrated landfill for the district, and does not have an advanced, scientific solution for waste treatment. The model of "smart mass mobilization" in environmental treatment in Dien Chau needs to be encouraged and improved.

Nguyen Hai