VietNamNet Bridge – Environmental responsibility survey finds the majority of companies ignoring the government’s environmental protection regulations in pursuit of greater profit margins.

Under the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s (MPI) recently-released survey on enterprises’ environmental protection, most surveyed enterprises have ignored environmental protection activities.

The survey of over 333 enterprises, covering local private (55 per cent), foreign (35.4 per cent), and state-run entities (6.9 per cent) was conducted late last year. The enterprises were all based in the provinces of Phu Tho (33 per cent), Binh Duong (37 per cent) and Danang City (30 per cent). They operate in such sectors as textiles and garments, paper and wrapping, metal, electronics, plastic and chemicals.

Under the survey, more than half of the respondents said they had no staff in charge of analysing environmental information, while just over 30 per cent of them had their own sections in charge of processing environmental information.

“Among the enterprises with staff in charge of processing environmental information, up to 87 per cent had only one or two staff assigned to the job, reflecting the fact that many enterprises have given precious little attention to environmental information,” said Doan Hai Yen, head of the survey.

Moreover, under the government’s regulations, enterprises must periodically submit their environmental reports to local authorities. However, only 30 per cent of the surveyed enterprises abided by the regulation. Also up to 82 per cent of the respondents said they had not bought information on environmental protection from any of the agencies providing it.

Notably, 42 per cent of the surveyed enterprises said they had “never” publicised their environmental protection information to the public.

Yen said many enterprises in the world are using the international standard of ISO 14001 for environmental management. “However, only 13 per cent out of these 300 enterprises have applied this standard.”

“All of this evidence clearly reflects why the environment is being damaged every hour and why the number of environmental pollution cases keeps increasing,” she said.

For example, locally-owned Quang Ngai Sugar Joint Stock Company in Quang Ngai province was last month fined VND164 million (nearly $7,900) for discharging its toxic waste water directly into the local environment.

Earlier in May 2013, South Korea’s dyer Saehan Vina Company Limited in Ho Chi Minh City was found to have been discharging untreated toxic water into the environment since 2010. Instead of building a waste water treatment facility, the company tried to shirk its responsibilities and save money by digging a large hole in the ground to contain the water. As a consequence, many houses nearby have been suffering from land sinking.

MPI Minister Bui Quang Vinh said that Vietnam’s economic growth over the past years had worryingly caused serious environmental pollution. Many enterprises, including foreign invested ones, had failed to invest in environmental protection.

“They are trying to dirty Vietnam’s environment via their backward technology. We cannot sacrifice environmental protection for any price. Now is the time for the government to build its green economy,” he said.

The Ministry of Public Security’s Environmental Crime Prevention and Fighting Police Department last year discovered nearly 10,000 environmental violation cases, up 27 per cent on-year, with 284 cases and 423 people prosecuted. Of which many of the worst polluters were foreign companies.

Source: VIR