VietNamNet Bridge – Black smoke spirals up through the exhaust pipe on the roof of the funeral home. The fishy smell comes from the open outlets to the surrounding areas. Local residents in Binh Duong province complain they have to live together with the smoke from incinerators.
The incinerator next to residential quarter
The Binh Duong incinerator in Tan Dong Hiep ward of Di An town of Binh Duong province handled three incineration cases on the morning of November 5. When the mourners left, the incinerator began operating, discharging black smoke through the three exhaust pipes to the sky.
“We always get suffocated with the smoke. The situation is more terrible at night than in the day,” a local resident said to reporters. “We have to have the blanket cover over the surface to prevent the smell. If not, we cannot sleep,”he said.
Meanwhile, the reporters, though wearing two protective masks, still clearly smelled the fishy odor and the bone-ash.
A broken pipe was found behind the incinerator, from which the water from the incinerator comes out directly to the environment. Reporters’ heads got dizzy just after several minutes of standing there and breathing the fish smell.
Local residents said that the waste water has been flowing from the incinerator for the last many years, which has been soaking into the earth and the water wells, thus making the water dirty unusable.
Since the local residents reported the case to the incinerator’s management board, an edge has been built to prevent the waste water from flowing to the road. As a result, the waste water has been threading its way among the tombs and then soaking into the earth.
People not only have to live with the terrible waste water, but also have to sniff the smoke from the cremation.
Waste water and smoke attack people
Nguyen Tan Hoang, whose house faces the incinerator, said that he has been living in the fishy odor and the burnt smell for the last few years already. He has to close the doors tightly after 10 pm every day to prevent the smell, wearing a protective mask when sleeping.
Especially, Hoang complained relatives and friends do not want to visit him at home because they do not want to stay in the terrible atmosphere.
Tran Van Dinh, who lives next to Hoang, said that the board of management of the incinerator always promises that they would apply necessary measures to settle the problems, but nothing has been changed.
There are some 40 households living in the Tan An residential quarter of Tan Dong Hiep ward. The local residents here joked that they can be full up with the smoke every day, no need to eat.
Nguyen Van Trieu, an old man, said that every family has 2-3 children, and most of the children suffer bronchitis regularly. He said that local residents have complained about the environment pollution since the day the incinerator began operation.
However, the incinerator’s board of management still keeps a deaf ear to the complaints, while the situation is getting worse.
Tran Quoc Tuan, Chair of the Tan Dong Hiep ward People’s Committee, said that when inspectors come, the pipes would stop generating smoke. Therefore, the provincial environment department concludes that is cannot find any problems here. Meanwhile, local people still have to live in the serious pollution.
However, Tuan said, people have vowed that they would keep struggling to protect their lives. The problem would be discussed at the upcoming meeting between the local National Assembly’s deputies and voters.
Thanh Mai