Thousands of tonnes of litter has been left strewn across a large area of crops in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong’s Dalat City following recent torrential rains.
Lam Dong has witnessed heavy rains and serious flooding recently, which caused the rubbish from Cam Ly dumping site located on a hill to fall down onto many local household farms at the foot of the hill.
Thousands of tonnes of litter has been left strewn across a large area of crops in Dalat City following recent torrential rains
Vu Duy Thoan, 58, said that his family has grown crops in the area since the 1990s. Early this year, he spent an additional VND200 million (USD8,695) into his flower garden, hoping that he would pull in a profit of VND80-100 million annually. However, the garden has been ruined by the litter.
Le Thi Hoi, 53, Thoan’s wife said in tears that her family’s entire income has been put under the rubbish already.
Many other households are also in the same situation with Thoan with a total area of seven hectares being affected.
According to Nguyen Huu Vu, 32, around 2,000 square metres of daisies have been destroyed with some half of this need to be harvested.
The landfill with thousands of tonnes of rubbish is operated by Da Lat Urban and Tourism JS Company. The rubbish coverage on the crops is up to several kilometres long. The rubbish is giving off a terrible odour as well.
Bui Trung Duong, director of the company, admitted that around seven hectares of local crops had been ravaged by the litter. The firm will co-operate with municipal management agencies to collect information on compensation.
In July 2015, Cam Ly landfill was closed when a solid waste treatment plant of the city was put into operation. However, in August 2016, it was re-opened as the plant faced overload.