After more than 4 months of the 2-level local government model coming into operation (from July 1, 2025), some suburban areas of Hanoi have seen "black spots" of waste. According to people's reflection, the large amount of garbage has been congested for many days, giving off a foul smell on rainy days, and on sunny days, flies are dense and unsanitary.
In Van Loi village (Hoa Lac commune), people said that after reflecting, the environmental unit collected but only partially resolved it, then a new gathering point arose. The representative of the People's Committee of Hoa Lac commune said that the main reason was the lack of coordination between the Hanoi Center for Agricultural and Environmental Engineering and enterprises implementing the package. Some spontaneous garbage dumps such as the roundabout of the Thang Long Avenue overpass and the Van Loi resettlement area do not have a thorough treatment plan, posing a potential risk of water pollution.
It is known that from July 1 to October 30, Hoa Lac commune collected more than 1,780 tons of waste, an average of 14.8 tons/day. However, in Hoa Lac, Van Loi villages and along National Highway 21A, garbage is still piled up and lying around for a long time.
A similar situation occurs in An Khanh, where the amount of garbage generated every day increases due to rapid population growth, many newly put into operation apartment buildings continue to increase sharply.
According to Decision 3619/QD-UBND, from July 1, 2025, all environmental sanitation work in Hanoi will be handed over to the Hanoi Center for Agricultural Engineering and Environment for centralized management. However, after a period of implementation, many shortcomings arose: lack of coordination, the commune did not have a grasp of the data collected, people's feedback was slow to handle, many points of garbage were in backlog for a long time.
Meanwhile, the capacity of some collection units is still limited. Some places only arrange 1 trip/day, lacking means of transportation, leading to a situation of "garbage waiting for vehicles". Some gathering points do not have surrounding walls or garbage collection systems, causing secondary pollution.
A representative of the Hanoi Center for Agricultural and Environmental Engineering said that the current workload transferred from the commune level to the Center is very large, while human resources and means have not been supplemented accordingly. The center is coordinating with communes to review the entire collection network, determine the responsibilities of each enterprise and commit to completely handling the backlog in Hoa Lac, An Khanh, and Duong Hoa in the fourth quarter.
From 2026, Hanoi will apply an electronic monitoring system for domestic waste collection routes. Each expressway will have a GPS positioning device, transmitting data online to control the volume, journey and frequency of transportation. People's reflections sent via the "Green - Clean Hanoi" application will be connected directly for quick processing".
A representative of the Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Environment also said that the department is reviewing the capacity of sanitary contractors across the city, determined to terminate contracts with weak units that do not ensure collection frequency and quality. The criterion of "people's satisfaction" will be included in the periodic assessment and classification.
The authorities of some localities in Hanoi also recommended that the city soon complete the environmental sanitation project for the period 2026-2030, clarify the three-level coordination mechanism (department - center - commune), build a digital data system on the amount of waste generated, collection frequency and site images. Communes propose to encourage self-management groups, environmental cooperatives and communities to participate in monitoring and reporting violations; at the same time, promote waste classification at source to move towards a green urban - circular economy model.
Many opinions say that when responsibilities are clearly defined, the coordination mechanism is synchronous, businesses are capable and people are accompanying, the capital can achieve the goal of "bright - green - clean - beautiful", no more "black spots" in the environment.
