VietNamNet Bridge – Hundreds of thousands of waste, GYPS, of DAP Company have been piled in heaps at the Bach Dang estuary for the last four years, remaining untreated.

This is the landfill of DAP, a subsidiary of the Vietnam Chemicals Group, where the company gathers waste. After four years of operation, this has turned into a mountain of waste, which is containing acid, and has been threatening people’s health and the environment.

The landfill covers an area of tens of hectares and it is tens of meters high. Some reservoirs have been set up around, which contain the water leaking from the landfill, thus helping prevent the waste water from leaking into the environment.

However, there was no cover on the mountain of waste and nothing to prevent the waste from spreading out.

Doan Van Vuong, a local resident, who has been earning his living on catching fishes and aquaculture in the nearby area, complained that he has suffered heavily from the mountain of waste.

“The waste is put in the open air, which can be spread out in the wind. When it rains, the waste water leaks into the environment,” he said.

“Not only the farmers like us, the industrial zone on the other side have also suffered from DAP’s waste,” he added.

Vuong and his family members have been cultivating on 12 hectares of water surface and they have poor crops. He believes that the waste water from the DAP’s waste ground has killed the fishes in the ponds.

NVH and LVD, the workers of an aquaculture company nearby, have also said that the aquatic creatures have been dying only since the day DAP put its waste there.

NQT in Nam Hai Ward of Hai Phong City, who has been working in the Dinh Vu Economic Zone for the last 13 years, said he once witnessed the waste water overflowing into the aquaculture ponds.

“The pollution did not occur in the past,” he said. “Only since the day DAP began operation here, farmers have repeatedly sued the company for the dead fishes.. However, I heard that the company’s compensation made nothing if compared with the losses incurred by the farmers”.

Nguyen Van Phien, Deputy Director of DAP Company, said the waste can be used to make light bricks or unburned bricks.

Nguyen Ngoc Son, Head of the Technique Division of DAP, also said that in the long term, all the waste from DAP factories would be provided to the Dinh Vu Gypsum JSC which would make merchandise gypsum. The gypsum company has been built, which is located just next to the existing landfill.

At the end of June 2013, the Dinh Vu gypsum factory began churning out its products after a long period of interruption due to the procedure problems. The first batch of products has come out of kiln, but it has not been accepted due to the high humidity.

As such, it’s still unclear when the gypsum factory really becomes operational and when the mountain of waste can be cleared. For the time being, the waste has been spread out in the environment and threatening the health of people.

When the Typhoon No. 2 rushed down on June 22, the waste water then overflowed from the reservoirs to the aquatic ponds, killing shrimps and fishes. And the same thing repeated on July 29, 2013.

DDDT