A household living near the biggest landfill in Quang Ngai Province, central Vietnam has been blocking the road leading to it due to a land compensation dispute with the local government, causing garbage to pile up on many streets in the provincial capital city.

On Wednesday afternoon, piles of garbage could be seen along Nguyen Du, Le Thanh Ton, and Le Loi Streets in Quang Ngai City.

The garbage has not been collected from those streets for several days, making the local neighborhoods stink, as trucks have stopped picking up waste over the past two days, according to local residents.

A leader of Quang Ngai Urban Environment JSC, which is in charge of collecting garbage in the city, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that its vehicles failed to operate as the access to the Nghia Ky waste treatment complex, the province’s largest landfill located in Tu Nghia District, has been cut.

Earlier, residents of more than ten households living around the landfill had joined forces in preventing trucks from entering it to object to a resettlement plan mapped out by local authorities, according to Nguyen Dang Vinh, chairman of Tu Nghia District.

Currently, only one of the said households has continued protesting as the others already agreed to the latest arrangements by the authorities following a two-day dialogue.

That household has demanded higher compensation, saying that their land lot, which is subject to the resettlement plan, is residential land, not agricultural land as determined by the local administration.

However, the authorities have explained that the household’s land area was originally meant for planting perennials and only mistakenly registered as residential land during an administrative procedure.

“It’s only one household, but it has affected the environment in both Quang Ngai City and many other districts,” said chairman Vinh. 

He added that local authorities will continue working with the household in question to reach a consensus.

If the next working session fails, they will resort to forcing the household to let garbage trucks enter the Nghia Ky landfill, according to the official.

Vinh also pledged to handle the legitimate requests of the people regarding the resettlement plan, which is expected to reach completion by the end of December 2022.

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