VietNamNet Bridge - A report released at a workshop on animal husbandry development held in late 2015 showed that the husbandry industry created 83.67 million tons of solid waste in 2011, nearly 81 million tons in 2012, about 80 million tons in 2013 and 76 million tons in 2014. 

Of these, only 60 percent was treated, while the remaining was discharged directly to the environment without any treatment.

Ha Noi Moi quoted its sources as reporting that there were 4.5 million households living on animal husbandry, bringing 85 million tons of waste into the environment every year.

Another report showed that Vietnam has 2.6 million buffaloes, 5.3 million cows raised for meat, 253,700 dairy cows, 27.1 million pigs and 327 million birds.

Nguyen Xuan Duong, deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s (MARD) Animal Husbandry Department, said on Dan Viet that Vietnam ranked  fourth in the world in the number of pigs. 

MARD believes that it was necessary to focus on raising productivity instead of increasing the number of pigs which is already high. It has also recommended to restrict the number of pigs in every farm, or farming will cause environmental problems.

Experts have rung the alarm bell over environmental pollution in many ‘pig metropolises’.

Ngoc Lu commune of Binh Luc district in Ha Nam province is one of them. With large scale of husbandry, Ngoc Lu provides pork to many provinces in the north. Each of the households there raise tens of pigs, while the farms of some local households are even bigger with hundreds of pigs.

The husbandry industry created 83.67 million tons of solid waste in 2011, nearly 81 million tons in 2012, about 80 million tons in 2013 and 76 million tons in 2014.

There in Ngoc Lu commune, all the canals and ponds look as black as coal or dark yellow and smelling. There are mini biogas plants for every farm, but, with the capacity of 25-30 cubic meters, they are just capable to treat the waste of 20-30 pigs. This means that the remaining waste is discharged to the environment.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MARD) tried to settle the pollution in Ngoc Lu by setting up a waste treatment plant capitalized at VND7 billion. 

However, the plant was designed to treat the waste from 200 households only, while there are 1,500 households raising pigs. As a result, the plant had to shut down just one year after it was put into operation.

Local newspapers these days repeatedly reported about serious pollution caused by the farms which raise pigs for CP Group in many localities in the country.

According to Dan Viet, the common characteristic of the all the pig farms is that they are located near rivers and discharge waste to the rivers, causing serious pollution.


CV