Life stinks in central commune

Nearly 3,000 residents in Pho Thanh Commune of central Quang Ngai Province have been living with a foul stench and odorous wastewater leaking from a nearby waste treatment facility in Duc Pho District.

The site, covering more than 1.3 ha, receives and treats household and solid waste from the district daily.

Pham Thi Long, a local resident living near the site, said the smell, dust and smoke were especially strong on sunny days.


"On rainy days, wastewater from the site seeps into local paddy fields and residential areas, which leads flies everywhere," she said.

Tran Thi En, who also lives in the area, said she was concerned that wastewater from the site had polluted the underground water; a vital water source used by local residents.

Vice chairman of the communal People's Committee, Nguyen Duy Trinh, said the committee had forwarded numerous complaints by local residents to the district authority to help resolve the leakage, but nothing had changed.

Trinh said waste at the plant was being dried and burnt, explaining that it was not the waste treatment process that had been designed for the facility, which stipulated waste be sprayed with chemicals first before incineration.

A tank would need to be built to collect the wastewater, while waste would need to be treated in accordance with designated plans, he said.

Chairman of the district People's Committee, Le Van Mui, affirmed the need for the tank, saying the district would deploy the necessary funds to build it. Waste would also be treated in accordance with initial plans in the near future.

In the long term, the district has planned to build a waste treatment site, covering about 10 ha and worth VND35 billion (US$1.6 million) to tackle the problem.

Funds to build the waste treatment site had been mobilised, he said