Japanese experts yesterday urged central Da Nang City to apply advanced technology for waste treatment to help the city deal with overloaded dumps, fulfilling its target of becoming a ‘green city' by 2020.— Photo baodanang

At least 80 per cent of daily waste will be completely treated if the central city applies smart management of solid waste, Satoshi Sugimoto, an expert from Tokyo-based EX Research Institute said at a seminar yesterday.

Satoshi, who is a consultant of Japan's Overseas Environmental Cooperation Centre, said Japanese experts would help the city find the technology at a reasonable price.

The city should build up a strict process of waste discharge at source, application of the 3Rs (reduce, reuse and recycle) and appropriate technology for waste treatment to meet the target, he said.

Phan Thi Nu, from Da Nang's urban environment company, said the city discharged nearly 700 tonnes of waste each day, of which 74 per cent was food, garden and park waste.

"We waste natural resources and time," Nu said at the seminar. "A large amount of recycled waste can produce energy and save lots of money. However, the city's garbage is still buried or burned at dumps.

"The city reserves an annual fund of VND7 billion (US$333,000) for waste collection and treatment, but it could not solve the problem of pollution from dumps."

"The Khanh Son dump, which has expanded from 9.8ha in 1992 to 48.3ha in 2007, will close by 2020. The old dump, which stored 1.4 million tonnes of rubbish between 1992-06, has polluted underground water and the environment in suburban Lien Chieu district," she said.

"We need a huge fund to build up a perfect recycling solution, which would cost approximately 50 per cent of the city's budget," she said.

However, she emphasised that a garbage classification system was badly in the city.

(VNS)