Four polluting factories shut in HCM City

HCM CITY — Four polluting factories in HCM City were forced to suspend operations by having their power supply cut and their machinery and equipment sealed, the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment has announced.

The four firms are: a cloth dyeing workshop in District 12's Dong Hung Thuan Ward; Gia Hung Co Ltd in District 12's Tan Thoi Nhat Ward; paper producer Hoang Son Phat Co Ltd in Le Minh Xuan Industrial Park, Binh Chanh District; and Quoc Sieu Co Ltd in Binh Chanh District's Vinh Loc B Commune.
These factories had been fined earlier for violating environmental protection regulations. However, recent inspections showed that the gas emissions from these factories remain higher than permitted.
This is the first time this "strong" measure has been taken to force polluting enterprises to suspend their operations, the inspectors said.
Meanwhile, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment in central Thua Thien - Hue Province has fined 11 polluting enterprises over VND2 billion (US$95,200) for violating local environmental protection regulations.
Last week, Phan Van Dang, Chief Inspector of the Department, named the firms as violators: Thua Thien - Hue Enameled Tiles Co No 1; Hue Paper Material Joint Venture Co; Hue Textile and Garment JSC; Hue Seafood JSC; Kuks - Viet Nam Cement Co Ltd; Hoang Gia Paint Co Ltd; Thua Thien - Hue Mineral and Enameled Tile Co; Hue Brewery; Thuy Phuong Waste Treatment Co; Hue Environment and Urban Work Co; and Binh Dien Hydro-power Plant.
Their violations included the lack of wastewater and gas emission treatment facilities and the discharging of wastewater and gas in greater volumes than permitted, Dang said. — VNS

Source: http://vietnamnews.vnanet.vn//Environment/217483/Four-polluting-factories-shut-in-HCM-City.html

Little action on many ‘green' laws

Craft workers decorate vases for Chu Dau pottery products - the high-class pottery line of Viet Nam since the 15th- 17th centuries, in Thai Tan Commune, Nam Sach District, Hai Duong Province. — VNA/VNS Photo Hong Ky

HA NOI — Environmental mismanagement and serious pollution at craft villages were discussed by the National Assembly in Ha Noi yesterday.

On the issue of environmental protection law and policies in economic zones and craft villages, Deputy Nguyen Duc Hien said legal documents relating to environmental protection were not synchronous, resulting in a lack of strict policing of violations and discontent among residents.
Many legal documents were produced too slowly or were too general, making them too difficult to enforce, he said.
Hien said authorities had not yet paid due attention to environmental protection while penalties for violators remained light.
Similarly, environmental impact assessment had received little attention during the investors' licence processes, despite it being compulsory under the Law on Environmental Protection.
Deputy Truong Minh Hoang said 110 legal documents had been issued to regulate the development of economic zones.
"We are not short of legal documents regarding the issue but the problem lies in the low quality and ineffective execution of these documents," Hoang said.
The deputy said environmental pollution had been increasingly alarming in economic zones and craft villages yet few violators were penalised.
Hoang attributed the situation to overlapping management and a lack of interest in environmental protection, from grassroots office level upwards.
Many provinces turned a blind eye to violations because they wanted to attract investment, he said.
Deputy Truong Thai Hien said economic zones and craft villages had generated jobs for nearly 1.5 million people and contributed to growth in the southern province of Kien Giang.
However, environmental pollution in economic zones had been two to six times higher than allowable rates there, he said.
He asked the Assembly to revise Decree 67 concerning the collection of environmental protection fees for waste water, saying the current rates remained too low and were not enough to cover the cost of testing waste water samples.
He also requested provincial authorities be given more power to oversee dumping grounds as Departments for Industry and Trade, Natural Resources and Environments were currently overlapping in managing these dumping grounds and were passing the buck to each other.
Deputy Nguyen Minh Lam said the quality of waste waster discharged from craft villages was not closely controlled before connecting to concentrated waste water treatment systems at economic zones, causing overloading and pollution.
Lam and other deputies asked the Assembly to issue a resolution on environmental protection supervision in economic zones and craft villages.
Participants at the session were told there were 18 coastal economic zones with 800 projects capitalised at US$50.8 billion. Viet Nam also had 3,400 craft villages employing more than 11 million workers. Of which, 30 per cent of employees were rural people.
Deputy Than Duc Nam requested the Assembly assess environmental protection laws and policies to see if they conformed with reality.
He cited the Law on Environmental Protection issued in 2005 that related to seven ministries and localities, yet co-ordination between them was neither smooth nor in accordance with their responsibilities.
He said they had not yet conducted regular inspections over the treatment of solid waste, exhaust fumes and waste water.
Deputy Ly Kieu Van, meanwhile, said crimes and violations on environmental protection law were increasing. A Government report had found more than 1,700 environmental pollution cases this year, representing an increase of 72.6 per cent compared with the previous year.
Only 135 cases with 138 offenders had been prosecuted while the rest received administration fines.
Similarly, a NA Standing Committee report said most coastal economic zones of 15 surveyed had not yet met their commitments on environmental protection. Very few had concentrated waste water treatment systems and some that had them but shut them down to save costs.
Van voiced her concern over synchronous management of different ministries on environmental protection issue.
"I'm not sure if the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is able to become a bandmaster and take major responsibility over the environment issue," she said.
According to the World Bank, Viet Nam will suffer losses through environmental pollution of up to 5.5 per cent of GDP each year. — VNS

Source: http://vietnamnews.vnanet.vn//Environment/217378/Little-action-on-many-%E2%80%98green-laws.html

Environment needs better protection

HA NOI — Enhanced environmental protection tools need to be applied in an effort to ease the nation's chronic pollution problem, according to experts at the workshop held by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in Ha Noi on Friday.

Tools such as the strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and environmental impact assessment (EIA) would help planners assess the possible impacts on the environment of proposed projects before they were formally launched, and application of these tools would help minimise pollution stemming from economic development which had degraded the quality of life and threatened national security, said Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Minh Quang.

The director of environmental impact assessment and evaluation for the ministry, Mai Thanh Dung, said that local authorities failed to pay enough attention to performing SEAs.

"The quality of local SEAs also remains low," Dung said.

SEAs were often on paper only and not based on real conditions in the particular locality, causing them to be ineffective as a tool in improving economic and environmental planning, he said.

EIAs were also performed without considering opinions by the local community, creating conflicts when projects were carried out, said Dang Kim Chi from the Viet Nam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment.

"Many EIAs have been conducted without reference to environmental management but only in order for the projects to be approved," Chi said.

The low quality of EIAs could also be blamed on the low awareness of project investors or worse, namely their irresponsibility towards environment protection and the weak capacity of environmental evaluators, she said.

Nguyen Van Thanh from the Ministry of Industry and Trade agreed, adding that costs were another barrier to investors conducting proper SEAs or EIAs

To make these tools more effective, it was important to raise the awareness of both authorities and project investors about the essential role they play in preserving the environment, experts at the workshop agreed.

The capacity of environmental officials also needed to be enhanced to ensure the quality of assessments and of environmental management once projects were underway.

The application of these assessments were regulated by Decree No 29 issued last April and by Circular No 26 issued in July.

"Other regulations related to environment must also be amended to ensure consistency," said Dung, urging stricter provisions on punishing violators.

To date, 63 out of 61 provinces and cities throughout the country have conducted SEAs of their master socio-economic plans. However, shortcomings and limitations remain, with pollution on the rise, especially water pollution in urban and industrial zones.

According to Le Trinh from the Association of Environmental Impact Assessment, SEAs and EIAs have been effective environmental management tools worldwide since the 1980s, and Viet Nam was among the countries which applied these tools earliest in the Far East and Southeast Asian regions. — VNS

Source: http://vietnamnews.vnanet.vn//Environment/217353/Environment-needs-better-protection.html

Homes at former lakeside flooded

Photo by: Khouth Sophak Chakrya

MONDAY, 07 NOVEMBER 2011 12:02KHOUTH SOPHAK CHAKRYA

A girl stands in floodwaters in a neighbourhood at Boeung Kak lake yesterday.

Several hundred Boeung Kak lake villagers saw their homes flooded in knee-deep water over the weekend as heavy rains continued to pummel the capital.

Mie Mom, a village 20 resident in Daun Penh district’s Srah Chak commune, said that polluted water flowed up to her knees inside her house on Saturday night and prevented her family from sleeping.

“My village has never flooded like this before,” she said.

Kaon Chhengleang blamed the flooding on blocked irrigation systems caused by the infill of sand by real-estate developer Shukaku Inc.

“The rubbish and the poll-uted waste are pooling in our homes, and it is harmful to our health,” she said.

Kaon Chhengleang said vill-agers were also concerned about their electrical cords, which were dangerously close to being submerged.

Source: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011110752575/National-news/homes-at-former-lakeside-flooded.html