MONRE plans to maintain special control of units likely to cause pollution

Deputy general director of the Vietnam Environment Agency (VEA), Hoang Van Thuc, said after the marine environment scandal on the central coast, MONRE found it necessary to set up a list of industrial facilities with the high possibility of causing pollution like Formosa. 

MONRE plans to put 28 industrial production facilities under special control, which include Formosa (steel complex) and the Central Highlands bauxite mining and Nui Phao mining projects.

Of these, Formosa has been put under MONRE’s special control since May 2017, while others will begin from 2018.

The units subject to special control are large projects and production facilities in fields which are likely to cause pollution, or projects using outdated technologies which produce a high volume of emissions. 

Experts said Vietnam laid out the red carpet to welcome investors but did not pay appropriate attention to environmental protection. The special control will allow  assessment of investors’ efforts to protect the environment, and will prevent risks and fix problems quickly if accidents occur.

Nguyen Ngoc Ly, director of the Center for Environmental and Community Research, while hailing the significance of the plan, questioned the technical methods to control the companies’ actions. 

Ly said there are many types of pollution which can be compared with a sheaf of chopsticks. 

She believes that it is necessary to separate the chopsticks and break one after another. At first, three big chopsticks need to be broken: waste water, emissions and industrial solid waste. 

If Vietnam continues dealing with a whole sheaf of chopsticks, it won’t get the desired results, she said.

VCCI’s (Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry) Dau Anh Tuan said that pollution not only affects people’s lives, but also upsets business operations. 

A VCCI survey in 2016 found that 67.6 percent of Vietnamese enterprises were affected by pollution, 22.9 percent of which said the effects were serious. The proportions were especially high in Ha Tinh, Quang Binh and Quang Tri provinces, which bore a direct impact from the Formosa scandal.

The high-risk industrial production fields include 1) steel manufacturing 2) thermal power 3) exploiting and processing of metallic minerals using toxic chemicals; 4) paper & pulp production; 5) dyeing; 6) plating; 7) processing rubber latex; 8) processing cassava starch; 9) production of cement; 10) production of chemicals, fertilizers 11) oil refining; 12) tanning; 13) seafood processing; 14) sugarcane; 15) production of batteries; 16) waste treatment.

RELATED NEWS

Water pollution from coffee production plagues Son La

Treating pollution in craft villages high on Hanoi’s list of priorities

Thien Nhien