Thousands of houses and a section of the Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway near the Long Thanh International Airport project in Dong Nai Province, southern Vietnam have been cloaked in dust from the construction site for several months.

Many residents of Binh Son Commune, Long Thanh District described the situation as a dust storm, which began a few months ago and has worsened since the end of January – the start of the windy, dry season.

Teachers of Binh Son Kindergarten, located in the eponymous commune, said that although it takes more than two hours a day to clean the classrooms after students finish school, the school is still covered in thick layers of dust the next morning.

Linh, a local kindergarten teacher, said that many students suffer from respiratory diseases caused by the dust, and some parents have even changed schools for their children.

Many older residents have also had respiratory problems.

The dust circulation has affected not only the lives and health of local people but also visibility on a section of the Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway and adjacent streets.

The dust comes from the construction for Long Thanh International Airport in the namesake district, where thousands of workers along with numerous pieces of machinery are working to build the foundation of the project, whose total budget is VND336.63 trillion (US$14.2 billion).

The airport project, including four components on about 5,000 hectares of land, will be the largest airport in Vietnam upon completion.

Located some 40 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City, it is expected to ease pressure on the overcrowded Tan Son Nhat International Airport in the southern metropolis, serving 100 million passengers and five million tons of cargo every year.

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