A private enterprise has been utilizing part of a cemetery in Vietnam’s Central Highlands as an unlicensed place for mixing concrete and parking trucks for nearly one year, causing annoyance for people living around.

Trieu Khanh Limited Company has occupied a 3,000-square-meter area, about half a standard football field, of a state-run graveyard in Duc Trong District in Lam Dong Province since late 2017.

The business owner is the husband of Pham Thi Thanh Thuy, deputy chairwoman of the Duc Trong People’s Committee, or the local administration.

Cement trucks are seen at a cemetery in Lam Dong Province in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. Photo: Tuoi Tre

A resident living near the disturbed cemetery said on condition of anonymity that he and others are suffering as the concrete mixing facility generates noise and kicks up dust.

“Just over a year since it emerged, roads here are seriously damaged,” the man said.

Nepotism may be playing an important role here, he hinted.

“At first we wondered why this was happening, but later we stopped talking about that because we know that the company owner is related to a leader in the local administration,” he said.

“We only put questions about it in meetings with the representatives we elected,” he added, referring to occasions when lawmakers met with local constituents.

Wastewater comes from the concrete mixing facility at a cemetery in Lam Dong Province in Vietnam’s Central Highlands. Photo: Tuoi Tre

A district leader underlined the facility is not officially permitted to operate and local residents have made multiple complaints about problems from it.

The district administration has required the Trieu Khanh Co. to soon remove it, the official said, without specifying how soon is ‘soon.’

The firm is only ‘borrowing’ land in the graveyard, which is not for business rent, the leader added.

The enterprise uses the cemetery for two years in exchange for a yearly VND10 million ($430) to the graveyard management, according to an agreement between the two organizations.

The district administration has allowed the concrete-mixing facility to exist as it says that the site is formed on a temporary basis for local public constructions.

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