VietNamNet Bridge - Next to the Bac Thang Long Bridge area in Hanoi, a ‘bovine bone’ lane full of big piles of animal bones and viscera is located.


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The bone lane in Hanoi



In the last few years, Co Dien Hamlet (in Hai Boi Commune of Dong Anh District) slaughterhouses near the area have been providing cattle meat to wholesale markets throughout Hanoi. 

With 13 private slaughterhouses, hundreds of buffalos and cows are killed a day.

Tens of bone piles, big and small, together with viscera, are dumped along the country lane, harming the local environment and creating a bad smell. The piles have been there for years amid the indifference of the local authorities.

“We have been living with this terrible odor for dozens of years,” said Nguyen Van T from Co Dien hamlet. 

“The odor attracts flies. The slaughterhouses have helped locals get rich, but they should not sacrifice the environment,” he said.

Tens of bone piles, big and small, together with viscera, are dumped along the country lane, harming the local environment and creating a bad smell. The piles have been there for years amid the indifference of the local authorities.

Most of the private slaughterhouses do not have waste treatment systems. Half of the 3 kilometer lane is used as grounds for slaughterhouses to put waste.

As the amount of waste has grown, the slaughterhouse owners now throw waste anywhere they can find idle land. 

The land plot belonging to the waste treatment company of Phu Dien Company has also become a waste ground.

“To reach the rice field, we have to climb the bone piles,” Nguyen Thi H, a farmer, complained. “We lodged complaints to local authorities, but nothing changed.”

According to Nguyen Quoc Moi, head of Co Dien hamlet, the slaughterhouses have been operating for many years, but the situation was better in the past. The bones were once collected by a bone processing company, but that stopped. 

As locals repeatedly complained about pollution, the Hai Boi commune People’s Committee took action. Bones were put into big jute bags, but they were never carried away from the area.

According to Moi, slaughterhouse owners were invited to the commune’s headquarters recently and were asked to promise not to throw out waste in the area. However, the owners did not comply. 

“The problem won’t be settled if the slaughterhouse owners are not sanctioned heavily,” he said. “Only iron discipline will help clean the environment.”

About 6,000 tons of solid waste is produced daily in Hanoi, 95 percent of which is buried, according to the city’s construction department.

Hanoi authorities have called on enterprises to invest in technologies to treat and recycle waste to turn waste into useful materials. 


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