In recent times, the Ha Long City government has taken many strong measures to rectify the transportation and trading of wood chips in the area. However, the situation of businesses transporting wood chips causing environmental pollution continues, affecting the lives of people as well as the image of the heritage city.
According to preliminary statistics of the City's Department of Natural Resources and Environment, in Ha Long City, there are 24 units engaged in the production, gathering, transportation and trading of wood chips in Viet Hung Industrial Park, Cai Lan Port area and in the communes and wards of Vu Oai, Hoanh Bo, Gieng Day, Ha Khanh... During the process of transporting and trading wood chips, enterprises often do not ensure environmental hygiene, causing traffic safety problems; expanding the walls of containers, causing wood chips to fall onto the road and into the sea.
In 2023 and early 2024, Ha Long City will continuously hold meetings to limit and completely handle this situation, including strictly implementing administrative sanctions against 7 units violating the environmental field, establishing records of administrative violations in the land field with enterprises using land for the wrong purpose; proposing to terminate the operations of enterprises whose project implementation period has expired, relocating wood chip facilities that are not properly planned; inspecting and handling trucks carrying wood chips in violation...
However, after each campaign of the city's functional forces, the situation of business activities and transportation of wood chips causing environmental pollution occurs. Currently, along the road from Cai Lan Industrial Park to the Love Bridge intersection, the road connecting Cai Lan Industrial Park with Viet Hung Industrial Park to Ha Long - Van Don Expressway... there is often a situation of wood chips falling from trucks, this is also a nightmare for workers working in Cai Lan Industrial Park and for people living near the roads.
According to the reporter of the Provincial Media Center, the situation of transport vehicles dropping wood chips on the road has lasted for many months now, especially on days when ships dock at Cai Lan port and CICT Cai Lan port to load goods, there will be hundreds of trucks going back and forth carrying wood chips to the port, in which many trucks have wood chips stacked higher than the truck bed, the trucks are not covered with tarpaulins, and the bed is not cleaned every time the goods are loaded or unloaded. When there is a strong wind, the chips are blown away, scattered thickly on both sides of the road, and over time, they also clog the drainage system.
Mr. Nguyen Van Hung (Gieng Day Ward) said indignantly: Wood chip trucks run every day, this dry season the wind blows strongly, opening the door in the morning will blow the dust into the house, not only polluting the environment but also affecting health. Every time a heavy vehicle passes by, the drivers of motorbikes and rudimentary vehicles are also blown up by the wind, blowing wood chips into their faces, causing danger when participating in traffic.
The fact that businesses store wood chips at the beaches right next to the sea is also too high, looking from afar like wood chip "hills" and when not covered, the wind will disperse wood chip dust, causing water pollution. The story of marine pollution caused by wood chips has also happened at Dung Quat port (Quang Ngai province) when a large amount of wood chips were soaked in rainwater for a long time, and the wastewater discharged into the sea affected the seaweed flora at the bottom of the sea.
It is worth mentioning that businesses involved in trading and transporting wood chips have also committed to the city to strictly comply with environmental protection regulations not only within the port but also in the Cai Lan area and along the transport routes. At the same time, they have contributed funds to carry out daily cleaning along both sides of the port entrance and exit routes, cover the truck beds with tarpaulins, and strictly control warehouses to avoid causing unsanitary conditions on the common transport routes. However, these commitments have not been seriously implemented, and some businesses have even "ignored" the instructions of local authorities.
Mr. Nguyen Tien Binh, Head of the Environmental Department, Ha Long City Wood Chip Association, said: In 2024, we temporarily collected 1,000 VND/ton through the port from enterprises to use this money to hire a unit to carry out environmental sanitation work in Cai Lan Industrial Park. However, up to now, about 10 enterprises have not paid, leading to an inadequate source of funding. Collecting and cleaning up wood chips scattered on both sides of the road in the industrial park also faces many difficulties because there is no parking lot, so hundreds of vehicles are parked on both sides of the road, making daily cleaning impossible. Therefore, we hope that the province and the city will create conditions for the establishment of the Quang Ninh Logistics Association to operate independently, have revenue and expenditure accounting, and be responsible for monitoring, urging, and implementing environmental sanitation work. The city needs to soon plan, build and arrange a parking lot to reduce traffic congestion and environmental pollution caused by these vehicles and take strict measures against businesses that do not contribute to environmental sanitation costs.
Faced with this situation, Ha Long City needs to continue directing the authorities to increase patrols, control and strictly handle vehicles that violate load regulations, especially vehicles transporting wood chips that cause spillage on the roads. At the same time, port business units are required to strengthen propaganda work for vehicle owners and drivers of vehicles transporting goods in and out of the port to strictly comply with regulations on permitted load for traffic. Enterprises must strictly comply with the contribution to environmental sanitation funds, during the process of transporting bulk goods and wood chips, appropriate measures must be taken to avoid spillage on the road; vehicles must be cleaned before entering and leaving the port. Environmental units must increase the frequency of cleaning and collecting wood chips. For enterprises that deliberately violate, stronger measures must be taken such as revoking their business licenses. Wood chip production, transportation and trading activities in the city must be placed within the overall environmental protection strategy and closely follow the general planning of Ha Long City until 2040, with a vision to 2050.
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