Owners of landfills in the city will have to open them for periodical monitoring by people, said Le Van Khoa, deputy chairman of HCM City’s People’s Committee.

The Da Phuoc Waste Treatment Complex in HCM City’s Binh Chanh District treats more than 5,000 tonnes of waste a day. The city is seeking to resolve issues related to waste treatment and management and environmental pollution. 

Khoa said from July onwards, owners of four landfills at Da Phuoc, Vietstar, Tam Sinh Nghia and Phuoc Hiep will have to let local people visit these areas to evaluate the waste treatment technologies and monitor the environment.

According to Nguyen Toan Thang, the city’s Natural Resources and Environment Department, every day the city discarded over 7,000 tonnes of solid domestic waste, 300 tonnes of toxic waste, and 16 tonnes of medical waste.

Besides this, the air pollution had been terrible with smoke being emitted from nearly 8 million vehicles and coal furnaces, Thang said.

Currently, the waste collection and classification in the city is overlapping and ineffective. Landfills are causing serious environmental pollution.

Thang said the city had implemented measures to further effectively collect and classify waste, such as building waste collecting stations, setting up businesses of waste collection, and information dissemination to people.

Currently, a household had to pay waste collection fees of just VNĐ15,000 to VNĐ20,000 (US$6 - 8 cents) per month.

The department had proposed a plan to increase the fees. Under the plan, the fee would be VNĐ50,000 ($2.2) next year and continue to rise in the following years. 

VNS