Authorities of Ho Chi Minh City have decided to spend VND60 billion ($3.14 million) on the treatment work of toxic waste, Vice Mayor Nguyen Trung Tin said at a meeting in the city July 19. The money will be used to build more waste treatment facilities and incinerators in order to expand the capacity of Dong Thanh dumping site from 30 tons to 80 tons of waste daily, the Sai Gon Giai Phong newspaper cited Tin as saying July 20. Since early this year, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has halted granting licenses to companies that collect and treat toxic waste as the volume of such waste in stock is too numerous, Tin said. Many production facilities, thus, have to dump harmful waste stealthily or work with illegal firms to discharge their toxic waste into the environment. The city’s firms and industrial parks discharge nearly 300 tons of toxic waste a day while dumping sites are able to receive only 30-40 tons of such waste daily, an official from the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment said.
