A lady buys noodles from a street-side eatery in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1.

Ho Chi Minh City residents have been eating dirty cooking and pesticide-tainted vegetables, but the city’s health watchdog said it’s too understaffed to tackle the problem.

Food safety remains a serious threat to citizen’s health, but the department lacks personnel to deal with it effectively, Nguyen Van Chau, director of the city’s health department told a meeting of the People’s Council Wednesday.

But Chau’s statement was met with strong opposition from the deputies.

Deputy Vo Van Sen, rector of the HCMC’s University of Social Sciences and Humanities, pointed out that the department staff has been reinforced but the food safety situation has only deteriorated further.

Two years ago, the city health department had only one official in charge of controlling food safety. But now four people have been deputed, not to mention over 160 others at district health agencies, newswire VietNamNet quoted Sen as saying.

“But the situation has gone from bad to worse. May I ask how many more people does the department need?” Sen asked, adding he doubted the department’s management and coordination with other agencies on this issue.

“When can residents stop worrying about the food safety?” Sen asked.

Director Chau reiterated that his department was still understaffed to deal with the problem and offered no time frame for improving things significantly.

He said the department can monitor food safety in the city’s restaurants, but could not ensure this at street-side eateries.

Deputy Nguyen Minh Huong cited statistics that said HCMC every day found around 43 tons of vegetables containing higher than allowed amounts of pesticides and some 10 percent of fisheries products tainted with antibiotics.

“Does it mean all these pesticides and antibiotics would go straight to the stomachs of the residents?” Huong asked.

Chau admitted the problem, but did not assign responsibility for the problem to any particular agency.

The People’s Council, which acts as the municipal legislature, oversees the operation of the People’s Committee, which is the city administration.

Garbage complex under fire

At the meeting, deputies also watched a video clip featuring residents of Binh Chanh District’s Da Phuoc Commune having their meals inside mosquito nets to avoid swarms of flies and mosquitoes.

They live near the Da Phuoc Solid Waste Treatment Complex.

Last month, residents of three communes near the complex complained their lives had been seriously affected by swarms of flies.

Subsequent inspections found the flies came from a dump site belonging to the Da Phuoc complex. Maggots and larvae were found in the garbage of the fly-infested complex.

The Da Phuoc Solid Waste Treatment Complex began operations in November 2007. It has collected more than 1.3 million tons of garbage from the city since then.

Several reports from city hall have said the complex is applying cutting edge technology in the Southeast Asian region. But deputies said Wednesday they doubted that.

Deputy Duong Minh Quang said the garbage-burying method at Da Phuoc has been applied in the early nineties by other countries in the world.

Construction of the main wastewater system has not been completed more than 18 months after the plant began operations, deputy Le Thuong Man said.

“The pollution [at the complex] is evident. But everything changes whenever city leaders visit the site. After they return, the wastewater treatment, the stench, and swarms of flies from the complex would even get worse,” deputy Le Van Nhan said.

He called for more frequent inspections of the site by city leaders.

Pragmatic moves needed to attain growth target

Deputies on Wednesday urged the city administration to reconsider its year-end growth rate target of 10 percent.

HCMC’s economy expanded an estimated 4.6 percent in the first half of this year, plummeting from the 10.5 percent recorded in the same period last year.

Deputy Dang Van Khoa said the city government should adjust its growth rate target considering the poor performance during the first six months.

“In order to achieve the original target, the city’s growth rate would have to reach 16 percent in the second half of this year,” Khoa said.

“Is it feasible given the lack of capital and human resources?” he asked.

Deputy Nguyen Dang Nghia suggested the city lowers the growth rate target to 6.5 or 7 percent, saying the national growth rate target has already been adjusted to 5 percent from the original 6.5 percent.

Hanoi has also lowered its growth rate target to between 5.5 and 6 percent, deputy Nguyen The Thanh added.

Reported by Thanh Nien staff