Waste treatment for the megacity of Ho Chi Minh City - Part 4: Say no to landfill

Ho Chi Minh City has become the leading metropolis in the country and cannot continue to handle waste with outdated and simple methods such as landfilling.

Workers collect household waste in Nhieu Loc ward, HCMC. Photo: THANH HIEN

Proposal to remove obstacles

Regarding the treatment of domestic waste in Ho Chi Minh City, at a recent working session with the National Assembly 's monitoring delegation, Mr. Nguyen Hong Nguyen, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City, informed that the city is continuing to speed up the progress of 5 projects to convert waste incineration technology to electricity generation. After the merger, the leaders of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee held a meeting to consider and resolve issues related to domestic waste. This is also an opportunity to review what each locality has done and has not done and have more appropriate instructions.

The key to effective waste treatment is waste classification at source (PLRTN). According to Mr. Nguyen Hong Nguyen, in recent times, the main focus has been on propaganda and training for departments, branches, associations and People's Committees at district level (formerly) and commune level, then organizing implementation in some neighborhoods and wards. Actual implementation shows that PLRTN must have technical synchronization from collection, transportation, transfer to treatment of waste after classification. The city will review the technical infrastructure conditions for collection, transportation, transfer and orientation of treatment technology to develop a suitable implementation project. Ho Chi Minh City is reorganizing management according to the 2-level local government model to effectively manage the collection, transportation and treatment of waste in the area.

At the monitoring session, Mr. Nguyen Van An, Standing Member of the National Assembly's Committee for Science, Technology and Environment, commented that in general, Ho Chi Minh City has 5 units that have been transferred to waste-to-energy incineration technology, but in reality, the implementation is still slow. Sharing at the meeting, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Van Duoc emphasized that the city really wants to treat waste by waste-to-energy incineration technology, but needs to have a price policy suitable to reality to attract investors. In addition, the planning for biomass power capacity is very tightly bound and is currently under the authority of the Government. In fact, in Ho Chi Minh City, waste treatment plants have different conditions, so the planning must be adjusted and submitted to the Government. Ho Chi Minh City proposed that the Ministry of Industry and Trade submit to the Government the planning according to the framework level in Ho Chi Minh City, which could be 500MW. At the same time, the location of the plant, how to phase it, and the implementation plan will be left to the locality to decide. This way, it will be easier to adjust the capacity of biomass power sources and electricity produced from waste in Ho Chi Minh City, thereby speeding up waste-to-energy projects.

Adjust planning accordingly

To be fair, if we exclude the obstacles from the mechanism, the remaining part is a technical solution, from the lesson from the waste incineration power generation project of Binh Duong Water - Environment Corporation (Biwase), it is not too difficult. After the success of the 5MW waste incineration power generation plant project, ensuring many indicators of equipment safety, environment, power generation efficiency, ash treatment to meet the expected requirements, Biwase is currently investing in a 12MW waste incineration power generation plant, expected to be completed in 2026. The plant uses equipment from Siemens (Germany) to supply the power generation turbine, CNIM Martin (France - India) to supply the incinerator, ISGEC (India) to supply the boiler system. The highlight of the project is that the entire design, construction, installation, and operation stages are all undertaken by Biwase engineers...

Comrade Nguyen Van Loi, Head of the National Assembly Delegation of the 15th term of Ho Chi Minh City, commented that accelerating the progress of the phase 2 waste-to-energy plant will not only meet the electricity demand for production and business activities but also sell electricity to neighboring units, sharing the current energy difficulties. The project will not only thoroughly handle the pressure of urban waste but also provide green energy and contribute to realizing Vietnam's green growth strategy.

Not only stopping at the former Binh Duong area, Mr. Nguyen Van Thien, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Biwase, affirmed that the processing capacity can completely meet the requirements of technology and human resources for the areas bordering Ho Chi Minh City (such as Thu Duc, Binh Thanh ...). However, the scale cannot meet the requirements because it requires a large area of ​​land for the processing process. Binh Duong province has previously planned a new waste treatment area in Tan Long commune (Phu Giao district), on an area of ​​about 400 hectares. If assigned a new task, Biwase is ready to immediately deploy this treatment area.

How to soon complete a modern waste treatment system to meet the needs of a megacity of more than 14 million people, Dr. Pham Viet Thuan, Director of the Institute of Natural Resources and Environment of Ho Chi Minh City, said that if considering the general planning of Ho Chi Minh City, the current solid waste treatment areas in the city are suitable and do not need much adjustment when merging with Binh Duong and Ba Ria - Vung Tau. However, the issue that needs to be revised is how to manage waste treatment effectively. Currently, the price of waste treatment by landfill and the price of treatment by waste incineration technology to generate electricity are not much different. Therefore, waste treatment units are still hesitant when deciding to invest in new technology, contributing to higher environmental protection. In addition, investment procedures and policies for enterprises converting technology are still not suitable. This is also one of the reasons why projects to build waste incineration plants to generate electricity are stagnant.

“I think that, to promote the progress of converting domestic waste treatment technology in Ho Chi Minh City, it is necessary to assign responsibility to state-owned enterprises. Because state-owned enterprises, in addition to profit, also have to carry out political tasks,” Dr. Pham Viet Thuan proposed.

Regarding the issue of PLRTN, Associate Professor, Dr. Phung Chi Sy, Vice President of the Association for Nature and Environmental Protection, assessed that according to the current Law on Environmental Protection, household and personal waste is classified into 3 main groups: waste that can be reused and recycled; food waste and other household waste. The classification aims to promote the development of a circular economy. However, Ho Chi Minh City has previously only classified waste at a few pilot locations. Therefore, the city should recommend that central agencies remove obstacles in legal procedures to speed up the progress of waste incineration power plants. This is the basis for thorough PLRTN, and also the premise for promoting the development of a circular economy with non-burnable waste by reusing it.

THANH HIEN - TIEU MY

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/xu-ly-rac-thai-cho-sieu-do-thi-tphcm-bai-4-noi-khong-voi-chon-lap-rac-post806536.html