Making casket with composite to reduce environmental pollution

A young cadre of Ca Mau Provincial Party Committee proposed the proposal to overcome water pollution in rural Ca Mau and the southern provinces of the South because the graves were too close to residential areas.

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tang
(Photo: VTC news)

The initiative won the third prize of the competition 'Discovering environmental protection initiatives' organized and awarded by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and Radio Voice of Vietnam in early June.

In the middle of 2000, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tang, working at the Propaganda Department of Ca Mau Provincial Party Committee, returned to burn incense for his deceased friend three months earlier. His friend was buried at the corner of the back garden and your grave lies with other graves of grandfather, grandmother, brother and brother.

The soil type is mainly in Ca Mau and the Mekong Delta - cracked. Many cracks are deep due to prolonged drought.

Mr. Tang asked his family if there was any way for the grave to crack, the family members said that it was okay, the rain down was the natural soil that immediately closed. Here the graves only dig 1.2-1.5 m deep.

It is unclear whether it is because of shallow burial or not, from some cracks of graves, an unpleasant odor arises. In the rainy season, the water before filling the crack with grave soil should be able to penetrate to the bottom and nobody knows where the liquid from the grave is absorbed by rainwater.

He saw that his friend's family grave was less than 50 meters away from the house and the water plant. This situation, burial of the deceased in the garden near the house, is quite common in Ca Mau and neighboring provinces.

'Land left by grandparents', 'land reclaimed by itself'. So every house has a garden and in the garden usually spends a corner to make a cemetery.

The deceased person after wrapping with cloth is buried in a wooden coffin and a bottom layer of soil. Local timber types are known quickly, especially in the rainy season in Southern Vietnam from April-November.

In some cases, for a long time to be buried, the corpse is covered with tea or sawdust. These materials do not prevent liquid osmosis from decomposing into the surrounding soil environment.

There have been no studies on the effects of burial graves near the house on the quality of drinking water and people's health in Ca Mau. Just know, in the dry season, many families take water from ponds and lakes near the grave area to use.

Those ponds and lakes are often sunken pits due to the land being taken to build the grave. The water is clear but no one knows if the dissolved ingredients are safe.

In order to combat the osmosis of pollutants, the propaganda officer proposed a series of solutions such as using plastic or rubber sheet inside or outside the coffin.

Or from the replication of the cremation model of Kh'mer people in Ward I (Ca Mau City) to take measures to use coffins with composite materials. Composite is a commonly used material in the locality in boat making / boat, interest shell, even toilet. Preliminary calculations show that coffins with composite do not penetrate, only a few million dong, cheaper than wood.

What is remarkable about this scientific initiative is that it comes from someone who is not a scientist. The author of the project won the third prize of the 'Discovery of environmental protection initiative' contest held in Vietnam, saying that he will soon work with the Provincial Department of Natural Resources & Environment to clarify the possibility. exam of the initiative.

However, the biggest obstacle to the dissemination of initiatives, many people believe, lies in the propaganda stage, the central task of the agency that Mr. Tang is working.