HCMC is facing a drawback in the treatment of
harmful waste as the amount of hazardous waste discharged into the environment
has increased rapidly while many treatment companies are lacking of competence
and technologies, according to the HCMC Department of Natural Resources and
Environment.

An environment inspector checks garbage at a dumpsite in HCMC’s Tan Phu District in a file photo. The city discharges some over 700 tons of harmful waste a day, far higher than the capacity of the current waste treatment companies. (Photo: SGT)

Nguyen Trung Viet, director of the Office of
Solid Waste Management under the department, told the Daily on Thursday
that the city was currently discarding over 700 tons of harmful waste a day,
which is twice the amount reported by manufacturers in the city.

The city has seven companies licensed to treat
harmful waste, but four of them have recently been caught by local police for
using illegal treatment processes, while the remaining three are overloaded,
Viet said.

These three companies, namely Moi Truong Xanh,
Viet Uc and Quoc Viet, are demanding higher treatment fees under the

current
circumstances. Viet said these companies asked for a fee 20 times higher than in
the past.

Enterprises have to pay some VND9 million for
treating one ton of hazardous mud, or even some VND45 million for recycling a
ton of scrap bulbs.

To evade a preventively-high treatment fee, many
businesses in the city have illegally discharged waste into the environment, he
said.

Hao Duong Tanning Company in Hiep Phuoc
Industrial Park, for instance, is stockpiling over 600 tons of harmful mud, and
this company has many times been found breaching the environment law.

Some years ago, the city government had a project
to develop a common zone for treating waste in Cu Chi District. This 200-hectare
area was expected to be a concentrated place for treating harmful waste for the
city. However, according to

Viet, the project is still unfinished because of
site clearance problems.

“The city government has just agreed on a budget
for accelerating site clearance for this project, and it will likely take one
year and a half more to complete this project,” he said.

VietNamNet/SGT