HCMC will reduce waste burial to below 50% by 2020 by switching to new waste treatment technologies, according to the city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

A view of Da Phuoc solid waste treatment complex. HCMC will reduce waste burial to below 50% by 2020 by switching to new waste treatment technologies

Residents in the southern part of the city, particularly the Phu My Hung urban area, are confronted daily with a terrible odor from the Da Phuoc solid waste treatment complex, which receives 5,000 tons of garbage per day for burial, out of the city’s total of 8,000 tons.

At a press conference held by the HCMC government on July 3, the director of the city’s environment department, Nguyen Toan Thang, said this sanitary waste burial is not enough to completely solve environmental pollution. In responding to the problem, the city’s environment department has told waste treatment facilities to adopt a number of solutions to prevent the stench, including using chemicals to eliminate the odor and scheduling waste collection in a more efficient way, according to Thang.

Vo Van Hoan, office manager of the HCMC People’s Committee, said HCMC’s rapid urbanization and population growth, production activities, services, construction work and tourism had led to an increase in waste. The city government wants investors to use modern waste treatment technologies to deal with the burgeoning issue.

At the meeting on socioeconomic performance in the January-June period, also held on July 3, HCMC Vice Chairman Tran Vinh Tuyen admitted that waste treatment activities in HCMC mainly involved burial.

The city government is considering three schemes to improve waste treatment technologies, which should be able to handle 6,500 tons of waste per day by 2019. If waste continues to be buried, the stench will remain a problem, officials stated.

Regarding the resettlement land fund, HCMC still has nearly 14,000 apartments and land lots for resettlement that remain vacant.

Hoan was quoted by VietnamPlus as saying after the press conference that residents’ resettlement needs have changed over time, and they are no longer confined to resettlement apartments but have access to land lots or projects that fit their living and working situation.

The city government is considering converting the resettlement housing into commercial housing to make efficient use of the unused apartments, Hoan remarked.

Meanwhile, according to Deputy Director of the HCMC Department of Construction Le Tran Kien, the department has presented a plan to prepare a resettlement housing and land fund, covering the relocation of canal-side houses. Urban embellishment projects will affect up to 21,850 households, two-thirds of which do not have housing documents. The city needs a housing fund for households that do not meet the requirements for owning a commercial house, Kien noted.

As for the real estate project for families of soldiers on Tan Son Street in Tan Binh District and near Tan Son Nhat airport, Kien said that the project is managed by Divisions 367 and 370 of the Vietnamese air force. The project received investment approval in February 2017. Inspections revealed that it has not obtained a construction permit and has not been licensed to sell houses.

According to Hoan, after local media reported on the issue, the relevant agencies were ordered to report back to the city government. The site where the project is being developed belongs to the military and is under the management of the Ministry of National Defense. The city’s agencies will study the case and provide information to the local media.

SGT