VietNamNet Bridge – The people in Binh Man Hamlet of Son Duong District in Tuyen Quang Province have been living with kaolin dust for the last eight years. But the provincial environment department does not seem to be aware of the problem.

Dust and noise from the Feldspar An Binh Company’s factory have been a part of the lives of thousands of residents over the last many years.

Nguyen Ngoc Lien in Binh Man Hamlet lives in a house just hundreds of meters far away from the factory.

“It (the factory) is terribly noisy day and night, especially when it pulverizes ore,” Lien complained. “It also produces big volumes of dust, poisoning thousands of local people.”

A local woman said everything is fading or weakening because of the dust, from people to cattle and crops. “A lot of people have suffered chronic respiratory diseases. Fruit trees give low yield due to bad pollination,” she said.

The situation became worse in the dry season. A thick layer of dust can be seen on the surface of trees, houses and everything if there is no rain within three days.

Pointing to a tea field, the woman said: “Tea leaves are also covered with dust. It is necessary to clean the leaves thoroughly before processing.”

Hoang Van Ngoc, a local resident, said he is from one of 10 households that most suffer from pollution because they are nearest to the factory.

“We breathe dust all day, from early in the morning to late at night, especially when trucks carry stone powder away in the evening,” he said.

Deputy chair of the Son Nam Commune People’s Committee Tran Quang Luc confirmed that the volume of dust generated by plant has made the atmosphere oppressive.

“Dust and noise are the two things you cannot avoid when you live here,” he said.

“We keep complaining about this at meetings with representatives from provincial and districts’ people’s councils. We asked many times to give periodic health examinations every year. The representatives promised to report the case to state management agencies. However, there has been no reply,” he said.

In 2013, local households intended to draw up a petition to the company, requesting medical examination assistance from Feldspar An Binh. However, they later gave up the intention, because many parents have children working for the company.

Local residents said that they had complained many times about the pollution to competent agencies, but the Tuyen Quang provincial Department of Natural Resources and the Environment said that it has not been informed about this.

Trinh Viet Thanh, head of the environment sub-department, said he has not received any information about the kaolin and feldspar factory “producing” dust and noise that affects people’s health.

The official said that the company had met the requirements set by competent agencies to carry out mineral exploitation activities.

Tin Tuc