Xuan Son Landfill in Son Tay Town
Deputy director of the Hanoi Urban Environment Company (URENCO), Pham Cao Thang, on June 23 sent a letter to the city's Department of Natural Resources and Environment and Department of Construction informing they would temporary stop receiving waste at Xuan Son Landfill in Son Tay Town the same day as it was reaching full capacity.
According to URENCO, the overloading at Xuan Son Landfill had seen storage ponds holding wastewater from buried rubbish at the landfill reach over 70,000 cubic metres by June 23."We will have to stop receiving more waste wastewater from spilling over into surrounding areas that could threaten the local environment and the operation of the landfill," Thang said.
Xuan Son Landfill is currently dealing with 1,750 tonnes of rubbish a day which is 230 tonnes higher than capacity.
At present, the capital has two landfills, Xuan Son and Nam Son, which are treating some 5,000 tonnes of waste daily by burial. Both of these landfills have constantly operated beyond their capacity and are now already overloaded.
Meanwhile, the Soc Son Waste-to-Energy project in Nam Son Waste Treatment Complex that was expected to deal with 90 percent of waste at the Nam Son Landfill failed to finish construction last September as expected.
The VND7 trillion (USD303 million) project started construction in late 2019 and once completed, it would be the largest in Vietnam and the second largest in the world with a capacity of handling 4,000 tonnes of dry solid waste per day.
Speaking with the Tien Phong Newspaper, a representative from the project investor, the Hanoi-based Thien Y Environmental Energy JSC, said that they faced difficulties in employing staff due to the recent Covid-19 outbreak.