Two sanitation workers in Da Nang have been disciplined by their employer after a foreigner posted a video online of them dumping rancid liquid from a garbage truck directly into a storm drain.
Kilian Schwieters, a German national working in Da Nang, said he saw the duo collecting garbage on a street in the tourist-packed neighborhood of An Thuong in Ngu Hanh Son District on Sunday.
While the garbage truck was compressing the solid wastes, the workers opened a valve to release the extracted juice into a storm drain.
Schwieters filmed the entire incident with his phone and later uploaded the video to social media where it attracted droves of comments criticizing the sanitation workers’ action.
The men have been identified as employees of Ngu Hanh Son Environment Enterprise, the company contracted to collect garbage in the area.
Pham Thi My Hoa, the company’s director, said she had received a report on the issue and identified the two workers in the clip.
As a punishment, the men will not be considered for salary and annual bonus review this year, pursuant to company regulations, she said.
“It’s against protocol to dump garbage liquid into storm drains,” Hoa said.
“The liquid should have been collected and stored on the truck for treatment at a landfill,” she added.
As it had been raining on the day the video was filmed, the workers chose to release the liquid from the truck’s storage tank in order to prevent an overflow, Hoa explained.
Their decision goes against company policy and the management team will pay more attention to training employees on garbage treatment protocol in order to prevent further incidents, she said.
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