Even so, they refuse to relocate their production workshops in the commune, which has 500 kilns operating all day and all night.
Smoke and dust permeate the air, and the back roads are always full of people and self-modified vehicles carrying materials. The workshops near the roadside are open day and night, producing smoke and dust that covers the roads and everything on it.
People passing by have to wear protective masks in both sunny and rainy weather.
Nguyen Van Hoa, an official of the Van Mon Commune’s local authority, said craft villages were located in all five hamlets of the commune, with aluminum and material casting craft villages mostly located in Quan Do and Man Xa.
The work has been a traditional job for Man Xa residents for the last 54 years.
The pollution, however, has become worse. All the chemicals and waste water containing heavy metal from the workshops are discharged directly into the environment.
The waste water, which is black and smelly, goes into the canals, ponds, lakes and rivers. And, the fields near the production workshops have been left idle for many years because the land has become “toxic” to crops.
The golden age of Van Mon was in 2009-2010, when about 1,000 households ran material recycling workshops, which made up 73 percent of the total income Van Mon’s residents.
However, while the production workshops had brought money, they had not produced peaceful lives.
Hoa said the pollution in Van Mon has become alarmingly serious.
“Everything here is getting severely contaminated, the soil, water sources and air,” he said.
Hostile residents
Though the local people enjoy comfortable lives, they are not friendly. It is nearly impossible for non-residents to “penetrate” the workshops as they are enclosed and look like bunkers. Strangers are not welcomed.
Nguyen Hoang Gia, deputy chair of Van Mon Commune People’s Committee, admitted that the owners of the production workshops did not like receiving journalists and policemen.
“They will try to drive someone away if they see people taking pictures,” he said.
Reporters, state officers and even provincial officials are told to be on the alert against rioters who may attack anyone looking for evidence about pollutants in the locality.
Local people remain unaware about the consequences of pollution, while the local authorities continue to be powerless, as residents resent the management of authorities.
The deputy chair of Van Mon Commune, Nguyen Hoang Gia, said that it was nearly impossible to supervise or examine the production activities in the locality.
In 2007, the plan to relocate the craft villages to other areas to protect the environment in the residential quarters was not accepted by the locals.
However, the Bac Ninh Province’s Construction Department has asked for permission to build a Man Xa Industrial Zone where the craft villages could be relocated, but it is unclear if the plan will ever materialize.
