Hanoi residents ask for long-term solution over waste collection hinh anh 1A makeshift tent was set up o to prevent garbage trucks entering Nam Son dumping ground in Hanoi's Soc Son district. (Photo: VNA)

At a meeting with voters in Hoan Kiem district on July 17 morning, Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung said that the waste would be moved out of the inner districts by July 17.

Waste would be temporarily taken to the Cau Dien and Xuan Son dumping sites.

On July 13 night, people in two communes of Nam Son and Hong Ky in Hanoi’ Soc Son district set up makeshift tents, blocking the way to the Nam Son Waste Treatment Complex or Nam Son dumping ground.

This is the sixth time such protests have happened, meaning waste has not been collected and transferred from residential areas. Voters in the city raised concerns about the waste collection and treatment, asking for a long-term solution.

According to the official, waste treatment was among the city’s pending issues and Hanoi called for local and international investors in waste treatment projects.

At the Nam Son Waste Treatment Complex, a hazardous waste treating factory was opened in 2017, burning about 75 tonnes of waste daily to generate energy.

Three investors registered waste-to-energy factory projects but the projects’ pace was slow due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of this year, one of the three factories would start operation, dealing with about 4,000 tonnes per day, Chung said.

Next year, another waste-to-energy factory would be operational, dealing with 1,500 tonnes daily, Chung said.

“At that time, most of the city’s waste would be burned to generate electricity,” he said.

Regarding the Nam Son protest, Chung said that for the last three days, local authorities met with and called on people to stop the protest.

Chung said city authorities had decided the housing price and relocation sites for people who lived around the landfill and suffered from environmental pollution.

The city arranged enough funding for land clearance and compensation for affected households.

However, Chung said, the biggest problem now was to identify the origin of the land that they were using.

Agricultural and housing land would have different rates of compensation.

Also on Friday morning, other city leaders met with people living around Nam Son landfill.

Vice Secretary of the municipal Party Committee Dao Duc Toan said that the city’s leaders understood the hardship and difficulties faced by people living around landfills, particularly those living around Nam Son landfill in three communes of Nam Son, Bac Son and Hong Ky in Soc Son district.

He said that the city leaders wanted to listen to people’s difficulties, concerns and opinions so they could solve problems.

At the meeting, affected people said that they did not agree with the compensation options.

The compensation they were offered for their farming and residential land was less than the housing prices at relocation sites.

Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Nguyen Quoc Hung said that under current regulations, each household could use a maximum of 400 sq.m of housing, so if households had area in excess of the maximum allowed, the agencies that granted the households such land-use right certificates would take responsibility.

"If households co-operate with local authorities to adjust the land area, they would receive compensation for 400 sq.m of housing land. Their remaining land area would be classified as farming land, but the city would give them an extra VNĐ500,000 per sq.m," Hung said, adding that the city's support made the compensation for farming land higher than the current offer.

Earlier, among measures to address environmental pollution at the landfill and surrounding residential areas, the Hanoi People’s Committee decided to move all people out of the area within a radius of 500m around the landfill and to grow trees as a green corridor. The activities were planned to be implemented this year and next year.

Since July 2, 2019, the Soc Son District People’s Committee has assisted affected households to move and paid them compensation.

Accordingly, 1,100 households in the three communes would move out of the total area of about 396ha around the landfill. Compensation is estimated to cost about 3.4 trillion VND (146.7 million USD).

According to Vice Chairman of the Hong Ky Commune People's Committee Nguyen Cong Hung, after the meeting with city officials, people removed tents and let garbage trucks enter or leave the landfill./.VNA

Hanoi faces rubbish pile-up following compensation dispute

Rubbish has piled up on Hanoi streets after local people living near a local dumping site gathered to block trucks from entering the waste treatment complex.