Preventing pollution in individual civil engineering projects.

BAC GIANG - This year, the number of individual houses built in many localities of the province has increased significantly, proportionally to the amount of dust and solid waste released into the environment. The reason is that most homeowners or construction units have not paid attention to ensuring hygiene at construction sites.

Pollution is widespread.

For over a month now, Mr. Nguyen Van V's household in Phu My residential area, Dinh Ke ward ( Bac Giang city) has been constantly bothered by dust and cement from his neighbor's ongoing construction. According to Mr. V, as the building grows taller, the amount of sand and dust blowing into his house and surrounding households increases. Affected by the dust and noise from the construction, his family's roadside tea stall has seen a decline in customers.

The individual house construction project in My Dien 2 residential area, Nen Ward (Viet Yen town) lacks measures to prevent dust pollution for surrounding households.

Not far from Mr. V's house, besides being affected by dust and dirt, since the construction of the neighboring house began, the entire frame and interior shelving of the Dai Viet Kitchen Showroom at 168 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street have cracked and been damaged, affecting business and posing a potential danger. Mr. Duong, the owner of the showroom, informed that the building under construction has a frontage of about 20 meters, is said to be 8 stories high, and is likely to be completed in 2026. Therefore, Mr. Duong is worried that the prolonged construction time will cause the walls to crack and could collapse at any time.

In the commercial and service area of ​​My Dien 2 residential group, Nenh ward (Viet Yen town), many households building houses here still stockpile materials on the road; vehicles carrying soil and materials to and from the construction site often spill materials onto the road in the residential area…

In the first five months of this year, thousands of individual housing projects were started and constructed in the province. Of these, Bac Giang City had over 1,200 projects, the highest in the province; followed by Viet Yen town with 843 projects, double the number compared to the same period in 2024.

Reportedly, in the first five months of this year, thousands of individual housing projects were started and constructed in the province. Bac Giang City had over 1,200 projects, the highest in the province; followed by Viet Yen town with 843 projects, nearly double the number compared to the same period in 2024. Many other localities in the province also saw a significant increase in the number of newly built houses. According to Mr. Hoang Viet Hung, Secretary of the Party Committee of Ngoc Son commune (Hiep Hoa district), since the beginning of the year, nearly 20 households in the commune have built new houses, equivalent to the total number of new houses built in all of 2024.

The reason why individual homeowners cause environmental pollution and affect the lives of surrounding households is that during construction, most organizations and individuals acting as contractors do not cover up dust and prevent construction materials from falling. Furthermore, despite suffering from pollution, affected households often tolerate the situation out of consideration for their neighbors and try to avoid offending them. This inadvertently encourages contractors and homeowners to ignore environmental protection measures during construction.

Currently, many new residential and urban areas are being developed in the province; many families with the means are demolishing their old houses to build new ones. Among these, a significant number are large-scale, high-rise constructions with prolonged construction times, causing environmental damage. Besides causing dust and dirt, many homeowners and construction companies also fail to comply with regulations on construction waste disposal, leaving waste near construction sites instead of immediately removing it, or secretly dumping it in vacant lots at night or early in the morning. This situation is also prevalent in the Xương Giang residential area, Xương Giang ward, and the Lạc Phú residential area, Nham Biền ward (both in Bắc Giang city); the Ninh Khánh urban area, Nếnh ward (Việt Yên town), etc.

Raising awareness of environmental protection.

Environmental pollution from individual residential construction projects is a daily occurrence, prevalent in many residential areas and streets throughout the province. However, the detection and punishment of violations are very limited. The cases that are primarily penalized involve construction materials and waste encroaching on roads and sidewalks, causing traffic hazards, or illegal construction.

Mr. Luong Ngoc Duc, Head of the Agriculture and Environment Department of Viet Yen town, said that since the beginning of the year, Viet Yen town has not been able to penalize any environmental violations arising from the construction of individual houses. This is because proving environmental pollution from this activity requires complex steps according to the law: taking air and noise samples, measurements, testing, and environmental impact assessments. Meanwhile, dust pollution from individual house constructions does not occur continuously... Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong Vinh, Chairwoman of the People's Committee of Dinh Ke ward, also informed that catching cases of illegal dumping of construction waste into the environment is very difficult. This is because the commune level lacks sufficient personnel and funding to install surveillance cameras at locations where indiscriminate dumping of construction waste is likely to occur.

The urban development orientation of Bac Giang province until 2030 and 2045 focuses on upgrading and expanding urban space, building modern new urban areas; developing industrial zones and rural residential areas, while protecting the natural environment and developing ecotourism . Therefore, requiring owners of individual housing construction projects to strictly comply with environmental protection regulations is essential. Discussing this issue, Mr. Vu Van Tuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment, said that given the level of environmental pollution caused by individual housing construction projects, the competent authority to issue administrative penalties is the People's Committee at the commune level.

Accordingly, the People's Committee at the commune level needs to strengthen patrol and monitoring forces to promptly detect and handle violations. Construction project owners and contractors need to raise their awareness of environmental protection. During construction, they should proactively cover and prevent sand, mortar, cement, and other waste materials from falling and polluting the surrounding area. For the sake of a clean living environment, residents near individual houses under construction should not hesitate to remind homeowners to implement pollution prevention measures from the very beginning of construction. If homeowners ignore their concerns after being reminded, they should report it to the relevant authorities and local government for timely action to protect the community's living environment.

 

Text and photos: An Khánh

Source: https://baobacgiang.vn/ngan-o-nhiem-tai-cac-cong-trinh-dan-dung-rieng-le-postid419708.bbg