Many foreign direct investment enterprises in the Loc An – Binh Son Industrial Park, which is located near the construction site of the big-ticket Long Thanh International Airport project in Dong Nai Province, a neighbor of Ho Chi Minh City, have complained about dust resulting from the leveling of the site, saying that it has affected their products and workers’ health.

Representatives of over 200 FDI enterprises in Dong Nai on Friday attended a meeting with the provincial People’s Committee.

At the meeting, Doan Huong Giang, head of the administration and human resources division at Elite Long Thanh Co. Ltd., said “dust has caused a great impact on our products.”

“We expect the provincial authorities, departments, and agencies to come up with appropriate solutions to support Elite and other companies in preventing dust from affecting laborers’ health, product quality, and business activities,” Giang added.

Many other enterprises shared the view.

Earlier, thousands of houses and a section of the Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway near the Long Thanh International Airport project were also reported to be covered with dust from the construction site.

Do Tat Binh, deputy general director of the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), the investor of the mammoth airport project, on Friday told Tien Phong (Youth) newspaper that the corporation had asked contractors to enhance the spray of water at the construction site to limit dust.

The ACV will next week dispatch fire trucks to the site to spray water, Binh said, adding that the corporation will join forces with the local authorities to support local residents in cushioning the impact of dust.

The construction site is large and the leveling workload is huge amid the windy and dry season.

Fifty vehicles spraying water every day at the construction site is just a temporary solution and can reduce part of the dust.

“The leveling is expected to be completed by the end of May, when the rainy season will come, and the volume of dust will reduce,” Binh said.

According to the ACV, 2,630 workers along with 1,860 pieces of machinery are working to build the foundation of the airport project.

The airport project, which requires an estimated investment of VND336.63 trillion (US$14.2 billion) and is located some 40 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City, will cover around 5,000 hectares of land and was designed to have an annual capacity of 100 million passengers and five million tons of cargo. 

Once in place, it will be the largest airport in the nation.

At the conference, Nguyen Thi Kim Dung, a representative of Terumo BCT Co. Ltd. in the Long Duc Industrial Park in Long Thanh District, Dong Nai Province, also complained about the deterioration of a road connecting National Highway 51 and the industrial park.

This is a key road on which most workers of the enterprises in the area have to travel every day. However, it has been deteriorated for a long time.

The four-kilometer road has many potholes, posing a high risk of traffic accidents for road users, especially at night.

Some enterprises reported the issue to district- and province-level agencies in 2020. However, the road was repaired without care and it remains in bad conditions.

Representatives of FDI firms also mentioned the insecurity and disorder and power cuts without advance notice.

Chairman of the Dong Nai People’s Committee Cao Tien Dung said the province took responsibility for accompanying enterprises to overcome difficulties.

After the conference, the director of the provincial Department of Planning and Investment must review enterprises’ complaints and report them to the provincial authorities to work out appropriate solutions, Dung said.

Regarding the road leading to the Long Duc Industrial Park, Dung asked Long Thanh District to quickly upgrade it.

The provincial Department of Planning and Investment and the Department of Transport were assigned to ensure traffic safety for workers traveling on the road.

The Dong Nai chairman also requested the relevant agencies to review and promptly handle foreigners’ temporary residence registration and immigration applications.

Departments and agencies must review the procedure handling to meet enterprises’ demands and provide the greatest possible support for them.

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Authorities of Phu Yen Province in south-central Vietnam have taken action to consolidate an eroded coastal dike to protect Tuy Hoa Airport.

Dang Khoa Dam, director of the management board of construction investment projects of Phu Yen, said on Saturday that his unit started building a sea embankment to protect Hung Vuong Street, which connects the eastern end of the seaside Tuy Hoa Airport with the province’s eponymous capital city.

The embankment will stretch 885 meters to prevent sea waves and high tides from rubbing the road.

The cost of the project is approximately VND150 billion (US$6.4 million).

Dam’s unit will strive to complete the new dike section before this year’s rainy season although its deadline is 2024.

“The erosion is so serious that unless we do it urgently and quickly, the consequences will be unpredictable when the stormy season comes,” said Dam.

Built about ten years ago to link Tuy Hoa City with Tuy Hoa Airport, which are some 11 kilometers apart, Hung Vuong Street is made of cement concrete, not asphalt concrete, as the authorities had foreseen coastal erosion.

Despite that, strong waves under the impact of climate change have washed away hundreds of meters of sand along the road over the years.

In 2019, the management board of construction investment projects of Phu Yen dumped thoursands of cubic meters of rocks along the road to fortify a 600-meter-long embankment that was damaged by waves.

In the past two years, sea waves have continued to erode Hung Vuong Street, washing away the roadbed’s sand layer, putting the road on the verge of collapse, and posing a direct threat to the safety of Tuy Hoa Airport.

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Many people have been burning garbage and scrap along streets and near forests in Binh Chanh District, Ho Chi Minh City, posing a very high risk of wildfires.

An area close to forests in Binh Chanh District became a popular place for people to secretly burn scrap at midnight and dawn, according to the observation of Tien Phong (Youth) newspaper reporters in late March.

These groups of people burned scrap on both sides of Hai Phung Bridge, located at the border area between Pham Van Hai Commune and Vinh Loc B Commune, in order to get metals such as copper and iron.

Columns of smoke produced by the scrap burning flew toward the forests. Meanwhile, many trees at the foot of the bridge have withered.

Kenh Lien Vung Street in Vinh Loc B Commune, Binh Chanh District has also become a popular place for garbage and scrap burning. 

“There are few houses on the road, so many people burn garbage to avoid getting caught,” a local resident said.

“There is a lot of smoke, and the smell of burning plastic is very unpleasant.”

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