HÀ NAM — Five hundred households in Đông Ao and Mỹ Tho communes in the northern province of Hà Nam’s Thanh Thủy District claimed that they have been suffering serious environmental pollution for many years.

Local residents said they were not only affected by dust from the mining and transporting of building materials but also a bad smell from dozens of tonnes of garbage from a nearby dumping ground.

Trịnh Thị Huệ, a resident from Đông Ao Village, said local people had to keep their doors and windows closed all day to avoid the smell and dust, but these measures still weren’t enough.

On sunny days, the smell of burning wafted over the homes as the open landfill sometimes caught fire, she said.

On rainy days, the black waste water from the landfill flowed into Đáy River, the source of their daily water.

Nguyễn Quang Thành, chairman of Thanh Thủy Commune, blamed it on the huge amount of waste gathered at Ba An Environmental Joint Stock Company.

For its part, the company management admitted that the untreated garbage left over from the daily collections could sometimes cause an unpleasant smell.

The leaders said that every day it received about 160 tonnes of garbage.

In addition, more than 80,000 tonnes have been left over since the company took over the landfill from Hà Nam Environmental and Urban Works Joint Stock Company eight years ago.

To address the environmental problem, the People’s Committee of Hà Nam Province has asked Ba An Environmental Joint Stock Company to strictly follow waste treatment processes.

The landfill must be covered and garbage must be sorted for proper treatment and the company should coordinate with relevant agencies to take measures to extinguish fires at the landfill.

The provincial authorities will transfer a part of garbage at the landfill to another company for processing and invest capital in building a second incinerator which can be put into operation by the end of this year.

The authorities has also granted the provincial Natural Resources and Environment to set up plans to deal with the big amount of left over waste ease the concerns of local residents. — VNS