Close-up of spontaneous landfill causing environmental pollution in Thach That district, Hanoi

According to the reporter of the Natural Resources and Environment Newspaper, at the planned land for the construction of the Craft Village Industrial Cluster in Huu Bang Commune (adjacent to the internal road connecting Huu Bang and Di Nau Communes, Thach That District, Hanoi City), a very large spontaneous landfill appeared.

The landfill collects all kinds of waste from household waste to industrial waste such as: foam, cotton, styrofoam, sawdust, construction waste, household waste... Flies, leachate with all kinds of toxic chemicals are seeping into the adjacent fields day and night.

Ms. Nguyen Thi V., a garbage collector at this landfill, said: “Sometimes I see the environmental company sending trucks to collect garbage, but the frequency is not significant. While garbage is collected here every day, in no time this area will become a giant garbage dump like this.”

Mr. Nguyen Huu Truong, Chairman of the People's Committee of Huu Bang Commune, said: "This is a common situation in Thach That District, not just Huu Bang Commune. The reason is that Xuan Son landfill (Son Tay town) has been closed since the beginning of the year. As a result, garbage transportation is congested, causing temporary garbage collection points in many localities to become increasingly overloaded."

Sharing more about this information, Mr. Nguyen Quang Tung, Deputy Director of Thanh Cong Environmental Cooperative Branch, said: “According to the garbage transportation contract with Thach That district, we transport to Xuan Son landfill. However, because this landfill has been closed since the beginning of the year, we are forced to transport to Nam Son landfill in Soc Son district. The transportation distance is 3 times longer, so the volume of transportation has decreased. If before, we transported about 60 tons of garbage in Thach That district a day, now we can only transport about 40-50 tons. So on average, there is a backlog of about 15 tons of garbage per day.”

Talking about the solution to handle the problem of backlog waste in the coming time, Mr. Tung said: “We transport waste for 8 communes of Thach That district and currently we are prioritizing transportation at communes with temporary waste collection points near residential areas to avoid causing environmental pollution. In Huu Bang commune, the temporary waste collection point is far from residential areas, so the transportation frequency is not as high as the remaining communes. We are waiting for Xuan Son landfill to reopen to transport all the backlog waste, but this still depends on the functional agencies of Hanoi city”.