Hanoi is intensifying its waste management efforts, particularly in therural areas, said Pham Van Khanh, deputy director of the HanoiDepartment of Natural Resources and Environment.
Q: Hanoi hasdone quite well with waste treatment in the inner city, but in theoutlying districts some problems still exist. In your opinion, what arethe bottlenecks there?
A: Proper waste treatment is a very important factor in environmental protection.
Wehave paid special attention to garbage collection and treatment to makethe city green, clean, and beautiful. Since 2010, the city authorityhas adopted a policy to support each commune in the outlying districtwith 200 million VND (10,000 USD) to build a waste collection point.
Bynow, several districts, including Dong Anh, Chuong My and Phuc Tho,have implemented the programme well. Some districts have even used theirown capital resources to build more waste collection points. Our targetis to have more than 87 percent of the waste collected per day.However, the My Duc district has surpassed the target and is able tocollect 94 per cent of its waste generated every day.
We havedivided the waste collection and transportation process into two routes.In route 1, the waste is collected from households and then transportedto the collection points. All activities in this route are directlymanaged by the communal People's Committees.
In Highway 2, thewaste is then taken from the collection points and transported to wastetreatment plants, which are operated by hygienic environmental units,who work on a contractual basis with the district People's Committees.
Ifin 2011, the percentage of waste collected and treated in all outlyingdistricts was 77.48 percent, the figure has now increased to 85 percent.
Q: Does Hanoi have any measures to cope with the rapid increase in the volume of waste generated in the city?
A:In January this year, the Hanoi People's Committee issued aninstruction clearly stating that the district People's Committees haveto shoulder the responsibility of treating the waste generated in theirlocalities with financial assistance from the municipal People'sCommittee.
However, the document also elucidates that the wastetreatment technique must ensure absolute hygiene and should be in linewith the environmental law.
More recently, our department has supported some districts in designing proper landfills.
Wealso take a firm stand toward those landfills, which are already fullor fail to meet the hygiene requirements, and force them to close down.
Thecity has ordered industrial parks to adopt a road map for waste dumpingwith stringent control and they should adhere to the hygiene andtechnological requirements.
Currently, Hanoi has several wasteincinerators that are developed by Vietnamese engineers. One of them isthe Xuan Son project, in Son Tay town (some 40 kilometres west of thecity's centre). The project has four incinerators, and each has acapacity of 200-250 tonnes.
In December 2013, Hanoi launched the"solid waste treatment cum energy generation" project with funding fromJapan. The plant has a capacity of 75 tonnes per day. As of now, 95percent of the equipment has been imported.
The plant is expected to be commissioned by April, next year.
Q: Waste treatment technology is always expensive and requires a lot of investment. Has Hanoi thought about any measures?
A:To ensure safety in waste treatment, the Hanoi People's Committee hasoverhauled its efforts to complete and commission the 2nd phase on theexpansion of the Nam Son landfill in Soc Son district (74 hectares) andXuan Son in Son Tay town (5.6 hectares).
In addition, we havecompleted the technical infrastructure construction of a solid wastetreatment complex at the city level, in Dong Ke village, Tran Phucommune, Chuong My district.We are now seeking different stakeholders toinvest and then operate the complex.
The city authority hasadopted the policy of private-public partnership in investing to buildwaste treatment plants or landfills. The authorities have also requestedeach district to reserve between 1.5 to 3 hectares of land to build alandfill in their district.
In this way, all the waste can betreated in their localities instead of transporting it to somewhereelse. An example of such a case is the ongoing construction of thehousehold waste treatment plant at the Nam Son complex by the AIC jointstock company (in the 2nd phase).
The plant is designed to have a capacity of 2,000 tonnes of household waste per day.
I am confident that from 2015 to 2020, about 50 percent of the city's waste will be treated with advanced technology.-VNA
Q: Hanoi hasdone quite well with waste treatment in the inner city, but in theoutlying districts some problems still exist. In your opinion, what arethe bottlenecks there?
A: Proper waste treatment is a very important factor in environmental protection.
Wehave paid special attention to garbage collection and treatment to makethe city green, clean, and beautiful. Since 2010, the city authorityhas adopted a policy to support each commune in the outlying districtwith 200 million VND (10,000 USD) to build a waste collection point.
Bynow, several districts, including Dong Anh, Chuong My and Phuc Tho,have implemented the programme well. Some districts have even used theirown capital resources to build more waste collection points. Our targetis to have more than 87 percent of the waste collected per day.However, the My Duc district has surpassed the target and is able tocollect 94 per cent of its waste generated every day.
We havedivided the waste collection and transportation process into two routes.In route 1, the waste is collected from households and then transportedto the collection points. All activities in this route are directlymanaged by the communal People's Committees.
In Highway 2, thewaste is then taken from the collection points and transported to wastetreatment plants, which are operated by hygienic environmental units,who work on a contractual basis with the district People's Committees.
Ifin 2011, the percentage of waste collected and treated in all outlyingdistricts was 77.48 percent, the figure has now increased to 85 percent.
Q: Does Hanoi have any measures to cope with the rapid increase in the volume of waste generated in the city?
A:In January this year, the Hanoi People's Committee issued aninstruction clearly stating that the district People's Committees haveto shoulder the responsibility of treating the waste generated in theirlocalities with financial assistance from the municipal People'sCommittee.
However, the document also elucidates that the wastetreatment technique must ensure absolute hygiene and should be in linewith the environmental law.
More recently, our department has supported some districts in designing proper landfills.
Wealso take a firm stand toward those landfills, which are already fullor fail to meet the hygiene requirements, and force them to close down.
Thecity has ordered industrial parks to adopt a road map for waste dumpingwith stringent control and they should adhere to the hygiene andtechnological requirements.
Currently, Hanoi has several wasteincinerators that are developed by Vietnamese engineers. One of them isthe Xuan Son project, in Son Tay town (some 40 kilometres west of thecity's centre). The project has four incinerators, and each has acapacity of 200-250 tonnes.
In December 2013, Hanoi launched the"solid waste treatment cum energy generation" project with funding fromJapan. The plant has a capacity of 75 tonnes per day. As of now, 95percent of the equipment has been imported.
The plant is expected to be commissioned by April, next year.
Q: Waste treatment technology is always expensive and requires a lot of investment. Has Hanoi thought about any measures?
A:To ensure safety in waste treatment, the Hanoi People's Committee hasoverhauled its efforts to complete and commission the 2nd phase on theexpansion of the Nam Son landfill in Soc Son district (74 hectares) andXuan Son in Son Tay town (5.6 hectares).
In addition, we havecompleted the technical infrastructure construction of a solid wastetreatment complex at the city level, in Dong Ke village, Tran Phucommune, Chuong My district.We are now seeking different stakeholders toinvest and then operate the complex.
The city authority hasadopted the policy of private-public partnership in investing to buildwaste treatment plants or landfills. The authorities have also requestedeach district to reserve between 1.5 to 3 hectares of land to build alandfill in their district.
In this way, all the waste can betreated in their localities instead of transporting it to somewhereelse. An example of such a case is the ongoing construction of thehousehold waste treatment plant at the Nam Son complex by the AIC jointstock company (in the 2nd phase).
The plant is designed to have a capacity of 2,000 tonnes of household waste per day.
I am confident that from 2015 to 2020, about 50 percent of the city's waste will be treated with advanced technology.-VNA
