VietNamNet Bridge –  Big cities are spending more and more money treat the rapid increase in the volume of waste, causing difficulties for local authorities.

With a population of 10 million, HCM City discharges 2 million tons of waste of different kinds every day, which includes liquid, gas, sludge and solid waste, both hazardous and non-hazardous, recyclable and non-recyclable.

Nguyen Trung Viet, deputy director of the HCM City Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, said the city discharged 10,000-11,000 tons of solid waste, including 7,500 tons of domestic garbage.

Viet noted that though many waste treatment programs exist, the problems in waste treatment continue.

In 1999-2012, the city ran three costly programs on classifying waste at its source, but the programs failed.

Pollution has been threatening to spoil the great achievements in poverty reduction and hunger elimination and the community’s health improvement.

The money the city has made developing the local economy is not enough to compensate for damages pollution has caused or to remedy the consequences and the biological degradation.

Viet said since the living environment impacts all aspects of society, the city needs to settle the pollution problem urgently.

He said the HCM City Department of Natural Resources and the Environment is planning to close 24 landfills which cause serious pollution, improve 13 substandard landfills and narrow the scale of eight landfills.

A notice from the HCM City People’s Committee says the landfill No 3 in Phuoc Hiep area of Cu Chi District will be closed.

Meanwhile, the waste from Phuoc Hiep will be carried to Da Phuoc Solid Waste Treatment Complex for treatment.

The complex, believed to be the most modern in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, is being developed by the Vietnam Waste Solution (VWS) in three phases. For now, it can treat 2,000 tons of waste a day.

Big budget required

The report released at a meeting discussing solid waste treatment methods showed that the amount of solid waste in Vietnam reached 28 million, up by 200 percent than 2003.

It is expected to rise to 44 million tons a year by 2015 and to 67 million tons by 2020.

This will put more pressure on localities, especially big cities and provinces like Hanoi, HCM City, Da Nang, Binh Duong and Dong Nai, because local authorities will have to allocate bigger budgets for waste treatment.

Nguyen Thanh Lam from the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment said solid waste is mainly classified and treated at privately run workshops.

Domestic garbage and industrial waste are collected and then carried to waste treatment plants or landfills.

Thien Nhien