Ministries move to clean-up VN

According to Vu Thi Thanh Huong, an expert from the Irrigation and Environmental Institute in Ha Noi, an investigating team found much of the countryside was also littered with rubbish, including endless piles of plastic bags.

In rural areas, garbage collectors are often in short supply. In urban areas, rubbish is not always collected thoroughly. Statistics released by the ministry show that the average daily amount of garbage discharged by each household amounts to between 0.6kg in rural areas to about 1kg in urban areas - and the amounts are steadily increasing.

Phan Thanh Son, a technical expert from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Clean Water and Environmental Hygiene Centre’s technology office said Viet Nam now had 61 million people living in rural areas, about 70 per cent of the population. This meant that every day about 42 million tonnes of rubbish... had to be disposed of.

Son said that much waste from households and other places was thrown by the roadsides, in streams, on vacant land and in many ponds and lakes. "It piles up everywhere," he said.

Hoang Thi Vien, chairwoman of An Lao Women’s Association in the northern port city of Hai Phong, said many communes were "hot spots" of polluted land and streams. "Thai Son Commune is the most seriously affected", she said.

The Da Do River running through the commune had, until recent years, been a great source of drinking and household water for the city. However, today it is contaminated by household rubbish and waste water from riverside cattle farms.

Faced with the same problems, Nguyen Tien Thuoc, chairman of Quang Thanh People’s Committee in Quang Trach District in Quang Binh Province, said he was concerned about stagnant garbage soaking into underground water resources. He estimated that every household in the hotspot churned out between 1 to 1.5kg of rubbish a day.

In Truong Yen Commune, Hoa Lu District in the northern province of Ninh Binh, rubbish can be seen spreading along fences, gutters, under trees and even in household gardens.

Once upon a time, most rubbish was organic and quickly broke down into soil and humus when thrown away. It was generally made up of easily compostible matter, such as leaves, paper or such things as straw matting. This meant that even after hundreds of years, local rubbish dumps stayed very small.

Nowadays, most rubbish is made from tin, glass or plastic and takes many years to disintegrate - if it ever does.

Difficulties

"Environmental pollution in rural areas is partly due to poor living conditions and ignorance," said the head of the Environment Department.

Dang Kim Son, director of the Institute for Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development, said poor country people found it difficult to earn a living let alone worry about environmental hygiene. Many also lacked such basic necessities as clean water and hygienic toilets.

Tuyen (from the natural resources and environment ministry) said it was not easy to change the age-old habit of throwing rubbish onto public land. He added that most localities had no specific plans for burying and treating rubbish.

Duong Ngoc Trang, a resident from Truong Yen, said: "We do not know where to put our waste. Every hamlet now has two trolleys for collecting rubbish but they are placed at fixed locations far from houses. Therefore, we have to throw garbage into fields."

Quang Thanh People’s Committee chairman Thuoc agreed, saying his commune did not have enough money to buy trolleys for rubbish collection or invest in public garbage dumps.

Son said that investigations revealed that people, to some extent, had a good awareness about protecting the environment. However, methods for modern garbage treatment were not co-ordinated. Burying rubbish without treating it first was highly inefficient and led to pollution, he said.

Wait for projects

Son said garbage collection and disposal problems had been considered by the Technology Office for the last two years. However, there were few projects pioneering the way - and even these were in their trial stages.

Tuyen said the natural resources ministry had created an hygienic disposal site for burying rubbish in the northern province Bac Ninh. If it was successful, it would be expanded into other localities.

He said the ministry had also established media training centres on environmental protection funded by non-governmental organ-isations. The programmes paid special attention to educating young generations about environmental protection.

Son said the agriculture ministry had also set up a trial plant to treat waste water and solid waste from craft villages in Vu Hoi Commune in Vu Thu District of Thai Binh. He said the model applied low-cost technology, such as micro-organisms, to break down waste into chemical-free organic fertiliser.

Nguyen Hoang Hai, deputy director of northern province of Tuyen Quang’s Natural Resources and Environment Department, said the province provided VND100 million (US$5,700) to every district to solve environmental problems. He said the long distances that had to be travelled to collect waste from scattered populations prevented the job from being done properly.

While garbage disposal has become a modern-day nightmare for authorities, people in Nhue’s riverside Huu Hoa Commune in Thanh Tri District in Ha Noi have found their own solution.

Nguyen Quang Tuyen, chairman of the commune’s People’s Committee, said that people in the locality spent a day clearing away rubbish on March 21. Nearly 1,000 took part, including 500 union members. Students, young people, members of women’s associations, veterans and farmers all participated.

The clean-up included schools, clinics, the Huu Tu Pagoda, and the village cemetery. In two operations, the commune collected 65 tonnes of garbage. Those involved also agreed not to throw any more rubbish into the river.

"There will be no difficulties if people stick together," Tuyen said.