Residents block garbage tip

HA TINH — Residents in Ha Tinh City's Van Yen Ward have blocked garbage trucks from dumping rubbish at the Dap Chua Dump in protest against the dump's growing threat to public health.

Located in the middle of a residential area, the dump has been overloaded with rubbish. The 450 tonnes of untreated rubbish left outside the dump on Phan Dinh Phung, Tran Phu, Xuan Dieu and Nguyen Du streets has been lying there for the past two weeks, causing increasing concerns among locals.

The protest is the third time residents have blocked access to the dump during the past three years, with previous protests sparked by waste water leaking from overloaded garbage storage areas and contaminating the surrounding area.

Resident Le Thi Hoa, who joined the blockade, said local authorities continued to use the rubbish dump despite it being overloaded.

"The authorities asked us to let trucks carrying garbage to enter the site until the end of this year, but the dump is already full," said Hoa.

"We have asked them to stop but more garbage has been brought to the area."

Le Quang Duc, director of Ha Tinh City's Urban Construction Management Company, said the dump was getting full, but was the only one available in the city and the company had been permitted to use this dump until the end of the year.

"On average, about 50 tonnes of garbage needs to be processed each day," Duc said.

"If people keep blocking us from coming to the site, the increasing amount of untreated garbage will seriously pollute the environment."

Duc said the company was using 500 trucks to store the backlog of garbage, which had been sterilised, but this was only a temporary solution.

Le Thi Hien, a representative from Van Yen Ward People's Committee, said local people were also protesting against city plans to expand the dump by 2,000sq.m.

Hien said the committee held meetings with local residents and encouraged them to follow the city's policy but to little success. — VNS