LookAtVietnam – The investor of the Da Phuoc Solid Waste Treatment Complex needs to explain the long delay in completing the US$90 million project

The Viet Nam Waste Solution Company is the investor in the 3,000-tonne Da Phuoc waste treatment dump being built in Binh Chanh district. (Photo: TTO)

The Viet Nam Waste Solution Company is the investor in the 3,000-tonne Da Phuoc waste treatment dump being built in Binh Chanh district.

According to the contract between the company and the HCM City Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the State has already advanced $9 million to the former for building 25 facilities at the Da Phuoc waste treatment dump by November 2007.

These include a landfill, two weighing stations, an administrative building, a factory to treat effluents, lakes to contain rainwater and a compost fertiliser production facility.

So far, only 10 of the planned 25 facilities have been put into operation at the complex and work is ongoing on the others.

Seepage

The company has not yet completed key facilities including the factory to treat water seepage from the landfill, the factory to sort garbage and another to transfer it to the treatment plants.

The legislators said a solid waste treatment complex without these key facilities could not be accepted.

Huynh Cong Hung, deputy head of the HCM City’s People’s Council’s Committee for Economic and Social Affairs, said that the complex still did not have the 352-ha buffer area for planting vegetation to prevent pollution and stop the odor from spreading into residential areas.

He said that the company had promised that it would complete the facilities by last year.

Nguyen Van Minh, deputy head of the council’s Committee for Cultural and Social Affairs, said that the risk of environmental pollution at the Da Phuoc waste treatment dump was still high because it had not completed all facilities planned.

David Duong, general director of the company, said shortage of land was one of the reasons for the delay because many residents had not yet moved from the area.

The company had invested in and applied many new technologies in treating rubbish in order to protect the environment and reduce difficulties for local residents, he said.

He promised that the company would complete the facility to treat water leaking from the rubbish by next year, another to collect gas from the landfill in 2011 and other facilities by the end of this year.

Pham Van Dong, head of the Committee for Economic and Social Affairs, asked the city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment to co-operate with the Binh Chanh district’s authorities and Department of Health to monitor more closely the establishment of a green belt around the complex.

It should also oversee measures to prevent epidemics and other similar problems, he said.

The company should be pressurised to fulfill its commitment, he added.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News