Pollution lasting for many years
Binh Yen village (in Nam Thanh commune, Nam Truc district, former Nam Dinh province, now Nam Ninh commune, new Ninh Binh province) has long been famous for the recycling and aluminum casting profession. Production activities here create stable jobs for hundreds of workers, but lead to serious environmental pollution.
According to statistics from Nam Ninh commune, the number of households participating in production in Binh Yen village accounts for about 30% of the total number of households.
Previously, Lao Dong e-newspaper had an article "Paradox in polluted craft villages in Nam Dinh", reflecting on the pollution situation in Binh Yen village.
As of March 2025, Lao Dong Newspaper reporters recorded in Binh Yen village area, thick canals and ditches, turning black and green, with scum floating all over the surface and smelling foul. The atmosphere around the village is suffocating due to exhaust fumes and slag dust from the incinerator.
Binh Yen aluminum recycling village seeks direction for transformation
To overcome and minimize the prolonged pollution situation in Binh Yen village for many years, the local government of Nam Ninh commune, Ninh Binh province is drastically implementing many solutions to improve the environment here.
Mr. Pham Van Tinh - Vice Chairman of Nam Ninh Commune People's Committee - said that immediately after the merger, the locality has developed a master plan, prepared funding sources for environmental sanitation, dredging canals and ditches, building river embankments, and improving traffic infrastructure in Binh Yen village. At the same time, advising the Executive Committee of the Commune Party Committee to issue a resolution on reducing environmental pollution in Binh Yen village. In the long term, the locality determines that it is not only about handling the tip of the iceberg, but also needs to follow a roadmap to solve it from the root.
Currently, the commune is implementing a project to renovate the main road around Binh Yen village; dredging and clearing the system of culverts and canals to prevent flooding and improve drainage capacity with a total investment of more than 50 billion VND. The project has now reached over 80% of the volume, expected to be completed in August 2026.
The Resolution of the Executive Committee of Nam Ninh Commune Party Committee sets out the goal for 2025 - 2026, reviewing and classifying production establishments and households into 2 groups. Among them, there are groups of establishments and production households belonging to industries encouraged for development and groups of establishments and production households causing environmental pollution belonging to industries not encouraged.
By the end of 2026, production households must sign commitments to apply pollution reduction measures such as technological improvements and changes in production processes. Casting facilities must install smoke and dust treatment systems; dipping and washing households must remove harmful chemicals and apply environmentally friendly scientific and technical advances.
The Vice Chairman of Nam Ninh Commune People's Committee further informed that in the coming time, the commune will coordinate with investors to accelerate procedures for establishing industrial clusters (CCN); deploy CCN site clearance when conditions are met according to regulations. Request investors to allocate appropriate land funds to relocate facilities and production households that cause environmental pollution. When the CCN is completed, production facilities that do not meet environmental requirements will be forced to relocate to the CCN or be forced to stop operating.
Building settling tanks, installing exhaust gas treatment systems
As a household engaged in recycling for 20 years, Ms. Dinh Thi Tam (in Binh Yen village, Nam Ninh commune) said: "After local authorities propagated and mobilized, my family built a sedimentation tank system with 5 tanks to treat wastewater before discharging it into the environment. The 5-deposition tank system helps settle hazardous waste, limiting impact on the environment. After that, the sediment at the sedimentation tanks, I will hire them to treat according to regulations.
And at Mr. Nguyen Van Dung's household (in Binh Yen village) invested nearly 300 million VND to install an exhaust gas treatment system from 2025.
The incinerator is also one of the stages that needs attention, so my family invested in installing a exhaust gas treatment system. This system operates according to the mechanism of sucking all smoke and dust generated from the incinerator burning process, leading through the pipe system to the filter layers. On average, every 2 days, the amount of smoke and slag collected through the exhaust gas treatment system will fill 2 large bags, and then be transported to the treatment site according to regulations," Mr. Dung shared.
Removing the bottleneck of pollution in Binh Yen aluminum recycling craft village cannot be completed in a short time, but initial changes from both the government and people are showing positive signs, helping the environment here to improve.
