VietNamNet Bridge - Over the last 10 years, the Da Phuoc waste treatment complex has produced a bad odor and pollutes the air in the southern part of the city. 

Vietnam Waste Solutions (VWS), established to provide waste treatment services in Vietnam, is a subsidiary of California Waste Solutions (CWS) headquartered in California in the US.

The founder of VWS is David Duong, a Vietnamese-born American, who is also the chair and managing director of CWS.

VWS was in charge of designing, building and operating the Da Phuoc Waste Treatment Complex, capitalized at over $100 million.

Da Phuoc Complex was built on a soft wet land plot in Da Phuoc commune of Binh Chanh district in HCMC. In the first phase of the project, a dumping ground covering an area of 30.6 hectares and space area of 3 million cubic meters was set up.

Over the last 10 years, the Da Phuoc waste treatment complex has produced a bad odor and pollutes the air in the southern part of the city.

The dumping ground in the first phase is designed to have capacity of 10,000 tons of waste a day. It now handles 3,000 tons of waste a day from HCMC and 20 tons from Long An province.

However, more and more doubts about the modern waste treatment complex’s capability have been raised recently, especially after the city’s state management agencies discovered problems at the complex.

Under the waste treatment contract signed with HCMC authorities, VWS, after receiving solid domestic waste, will classify the waste, recycle, make compost fertilizer, reuse plastics and dump the rest.

However, to date, VWS has dumped all the waste it receives according to HCMC inspectors in early 2016.

The volume of waste carried to Da Phuoc over the last 10 years has piled up in heaps, creating ‘mountains of rubbish’.

VWS has not built the plant to classify waste and collect scrap materials for recycling with the daily capacity of 2,500-3,000 tons as promised. Instead, it is running a dumping ground with capacity of 2,500-3,000 tons a day.

Though it does not treat but only dumps waste, it still charges a fee higher than the other companies which dump waste only.

In 2007, the city’s authorities paid $16.4 to VWS for every ton of waste dumped, while the figure rose to $19.009 in 2013 and to $20.166 in 2014. In 2016, the fee is $21.1 per ton.

Many analysts pointed out that VWS enjoys many preferences in treating waste, but the investor still complains about problems hindering the enterprise’s operation.

Mai Lich