Forty-four solid waste treatment plants will be built in the country in the period of 2010 to 2020 to reduce the use of landfills, the Ministry of Construction has said.

The ministry’s Infrastructure and Technology Department said their construction would follow a road map – by 2015, 85 percent of the waste generated in the country will be treated and by 2020, it will rise to 95 percent.

The department also expects to recycle 60 percent of the waste by 2015 and 85 percent by 2020.

In 2010-2015, the road map will focus on certain regions, including the Mekong Delta, cities that have landfills do not meet environmental standards, and tourist hotspots.

In the next five years, the focus will turn to cities that have landfills which cannot be expanded to meet the increasing need.

The plants will be built under the build-operate-transfer and build-transfer modes with initial funds from central and local grants and soft loans from the Vietnam Department Bank.

Major urban centres like HCM City face a shortage of land for use as fills and building treatment plants. The city Department of Natural Resources and Environment said 1,100 companies and factories in the city and neighbouring provinces churn out 600 tonnes of hazardous waste every day.

This exceeds the capacity of the city’s 40 waste transport companies and 12 treatment businesses.

The city is clearing a 100-ha site in Cu Chi District’s Tay Bac Zone for building several waste-treatment plants./.