Bad odor affects southern part of Saigon

Theh Phu My Hung Development Company in late August sent a petition to the HCMC People’s Committee asking it to take measures to settle the bad odor spread in the area, which seriously affected local residents’ lives.

The company asked for municipal help after it found there was no problem at its infrastructure works, including waste treatment systems.

Do Thi Thao in Nam Do residential quarter said that the bad odor appears from 8 pm every day until the following morning. 

Meanwhile, local residents in My Thai quarter and on Nguyen Luong Bang Road said the bad odor appears sooner, from late afternoon.

Bui Van Manh in Phu My residential quarter said the bad odor had occurred for four to five months.

Residents in HCM City's Phu My Hung area in district 7 and in Binh Chanh and Nha Be districts have asked local authorities to help control the bad odor affecting the areas.

Prior to that, people in the southern part of HCMC, including Binh Chanh and Nha Be districts, also complained about the ‘terrible smell attack’.

The people living along Highway No 50 which connects Binh Chanh and district 8 have to suffer from the bad odor produced from thousands of garbage trucks which travel toward the landfill in Da Phuoc commune.

“There is one garbage truck every 15-20 minutes in the afternoon,” said Tran Thi Bich Ngoc, a local woman.

According to Nguyen Ngoc Thiep, deputy secretary of the HCMC Water and Environment Association, this could be considered an environmental air incident on a local scale.

According to the city, the bad odor in the southern part of the city was caused by the three companies operating in the Da Phuoc Waste Treatment Complex.

Kicked off in July 2005 with investment capital of $100 million, Da Phuoc is located in Da Phuoc commune of Binh Chanh district and developed by the Vietnam Waste Solutions (VWS).

The complex, expected to cover an area of 138 hectares, was developed in four stages and was slated to operate for 24 years. 

In the first phase, a dumping ground with an area of 30.6 hectares and space volume of 3 million cubic meters was built, designed to receive 10,000 tons of garbage a day.

Since 2014, Da Phuoc has received and dumped 5,000 tons of garbage a day, or 70 percent of the total garbage of HCM City.

In 2009, after two years of operation, the largest waste treatment complex in The city was harshly criticized by locals as causing pollution because of waste water leakage.

In 2014, the city’s inspectors announced they had discovered many problems in Da Phuoc’s operation.


Mai Chi