VietNamNet Bridge - HCM City residents in the suburbs have repeatedly complained about the serious pollution caused by the Da Phuoc solid waste treatment complex, which uses modern technology.

Eight years ago, when Da Phuoc complex was put into operation, local people were reassured that the waste treatment plant would be ‘safe’ because it applies American advanced technology. 

HCM City every day spends $49,000 to have 5,000 tons of waste in the city to be treated there. However, the complex is a serious source of pollution.

Chin Mui, a local resident in Da Phuoc commune, said he and many other people are looking forward to receiving compensation promised by the State, so that they can leave the commune for other areas to settle down.

“If we continue living there for more years, we will die of pollution,” he said, adding that he had heard VWS, the investor of Da Phuoc Complex, was planning to expand the complex.

“If this is true, the problem will be even more terrible,” he said.

Tam, a local woman, confirmed that the situation is getting worse every day. 

“We keep complaining about the treatment plant at all meetings and we receive promises from agencies, but nothing has changed,” she said.

The complaints made by local residents have helped make Da Phuoc better known in the country. 

President Truong Tan Sang, a HCM City National Assembly’s Deputy, at a meeting with the local voters in May 2015 also heard complaints about the polluting waste treatment plant.

As Da Phuoc is getting more and more ‘famous’, it is not easy to enter the plant. 

The only way to get into Da Phuoc is through the major gate, about 1.5 kilometers away from the Highway No 50. 

Mot The Gioi’s reporters on August 12 were blocked by security officers and asked to keep away when they arrived in the landfill area.

Da Phuoc is famous also for the huge amount of money it has ‘gobbled up’ over the last eight years to ‘treat waste and improve environment quality’.

A source said that there was a big gap in the waste treatment fees required by the Phuoc Hiep – Cu Chi plant and Da Phuoc in 2007, $5 per ton vs $16.4 per ton. 

As such, the HCM City authorities have to pay $12 million more a year to Da Phuoc than to Phuoc Hiep – Cu Chi.

Meanwhile, the city’s authorities impose only a 3 percent fee increase every year for Da Phuoc and offer many investment incentives. 

The investor VWS can borrow $9 million and VND100 billion at a zero interest rate.

NDT