Thousands of people in Thanh Hoa Province have been forced to live in a polluted environment, caused by a large landfill that has been operating there for ten years.

Waste piles up at city dump

The Con Quan Landfill is located in Phu Son Ward, Thanh Hoa City, around one kilometre from the city centre. The site was put into use in 2001 and has a capacity of 140 tonnes of waste per day.

Residents around the landfill complain that they have had to live with the pollution of the site for years and can no longer stand it.

Initially, the dump included a waste classification area and a fertilizer production facilities. However, after just a short time, the fertilizer production facility incurred losses as fertilizer piled up due to a lack of viable markets, affecting the other works at the site.

In addition, the city saw a sharp increase in population and Con Quan quickly became overloaded. Currently, the city produces around 230 tonnes of waste per day. The increase in volume of untreated wastewater has also become a problem that has affected the lives of residents as well as their natural resources.

Vu Thi Vinh, a woman who lives in Phu Son Ward, said, “We’ve been living with this pollution problem from the dump for years. I know a lot of people have been diagnosed with serious illnesses and some have even died, mostly of cancer or tuberculosis.”

Residents have repeatedly asked for help from local authorities, but no action has been taken. Last September, a group of residents gathered on Tay Son 1 Street to prevent garbage trucks from accessing the land fill.

Poor management of dump site

After their strike, members of the municipal government and the city’s Department of Environment and Natural Resource along with  the chairman of the provincial People’s Committee to arrange a meeting with local residents. They pledged that they would ask the site to close for a thorough cleaning treatment, but the situation has yet to improve.

Since early 2013, residents have held at least three strikes in an effort to prevent adding more waste to the site. The latest strike was on July 1 with and was carried out by residents of Phu Son Ward.

Vu Xuan Nhung, a local man who lives on Tay Son 1 Street, said, “We’ll try to wait until August, but we will continue to organise strikes if the site is still in operation.”

Le Van Hoang, an official from the site’s management board, said they receive around 250 tonnes of waste per day, roughly double their capacity. "We've taken some temporary measures to mitigate the problem, but they are unsatisfactory in the face of such overload," he commented.

In an attempt to address the overload problem, the provincial government issued a decree in November, 2010 approving a project to build another waste treatment complex in Thanh Hoa City. The project's cost is estimated at VND88 billion and is to be located 18 kilometres from Thanh Hoa City. The complex would be able to treat 500 tonnes of waste per day. Construction on the new site, however, remains at a standstill.

Even with new waste treatment facilities, the municipal government will have to deal with piled up waste at Con Quan before it can be closed.

Thieu Van San, deputy director of the Thanh Hoa Urban Works and Environment One-member limited Company, the new waste treatment project's investor, said, “It takes some time for site clearance. But if everything goes smoothly, the complex should be put into use this September.”