19/05/2021
In the passing years, it has witnessed the increasing tendency in air pollution in many localities across the country, particularly in big cities such as Hà Nội and Hồ Chí Minh City ̣(HCMC) that has seriously affected socio-economic development and public health. The main cause is dust, exhaust emissions from vehicles, construction activities and industrial activities with a large number of emissions which is not yet effectively controlled. In addition, the area of green trees and water surface in urban development has not met the requirements. The implementation of legal regulations, programs and tasks on air pollution control has not been synchronous and effective.
To enhance the control of air pollution, minimizing adverse impacts to people's health, and promoting economic - social development, on January 18th 2021, the Prime Minister (PM) issued Directive No.03/CT-TTg on strengthening the control of air pollution. The Directive requires ministries, People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities to focus on promoting the implementation of programs and tasks of air quality management in accordance with the direction of the PM in Decision No. 985a/QD-TTg dated June 1st, 2016 approving the National Action Plan on air quality management up to 2020, with the vision towards 2025. In particular, from now to mid-2021, it is urgent to review and evaluate the enforcement of the regulations on dust and emissions control in industrial establishments and construction and transport activities under the respective scope of management; propose competent agencies to consider temporarily suspending or suspending the establishments causing serious environmental pollution by the laws.
Evolution of air quality in big cities
In the period 2016 - 2020, although the air quality varied from year to year, many cities, big cities and industrial areas have struggled with alarming air dust pollution. Particularly, particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) is the most concern in big cities like Hà Nội and HCMC. The level of fine dust pollution tended to increase from 2017 to 2019 and decrease in 2020. The results of air quality monitoring showed that most values of other parameters such as NO2, O3, CO, SO2 were still within the allowable limits of QCVN No. 05:2013/BTNMT. In rural and mountainous areas, the air quality has remained relatively good and moderate.
The air quality index (AQI) shows that the air quality in Hanoi City and some Northern cities, normally in winter, is poor or even very poor. In HCMC, the air quality also reaches low levels in the dry season. In Huế and Đà Nẵng cities, in general, the air quality remains good and moderate.
In Việt Nam, the air quality generally varies according to different regions and different seasons in a year. The average annual concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 in urban areas in the North are normally higher than in the Central and the South. The concentrations of PM 10 and PM 2.5 in the Northern provinces fluctuate more sharply in winter with less rain, from September to March the following year (The observations are recorded at monitoring stations in Hà Nội, Phú Thọ, Quảng Ninh). On the other hand, the annual mean concentration of PM 2.5 and PM 10 at all automatic air monitoring stations in Hanoi in the period of 2018 - 2020 exceeded the allowable limits compared to QCVN from 1.1 to 2, 2 times with the highest recorded in 2019. Meanwhile, in the cities in the South-Central Coast, typically Đà Nẵng and Nha Trang, the values of PM 10 and PM 2.5 fluctuated slightly from month to month within a year. In the cities in the Southern region, the values of particulate matter had considerably increased in the dry season (from April to September) and decreased in the rainy season (from October to March the following year). In HCMC, the annual mean concentration of PM2.5 was stable with a negligible variation.
The main cause is dust, exhaust emissions from vehicles, construction activities, and industrial activities with a large amount of emissions that are not yet effectively controlled. In addition, the area of green trees and water surface in urban development has not met the requirements. Data from the People's Committee of Hà Nội shows that there are more than 770,000 cars and nearly 5.8 million motorcycles in Hà Nội and about 700,000 cars and 7.5 million motorcycles in HCMC in use except for many vehicles from other localities that regularly travel into the city and the military vehicles used for public service purpose. Particularly, many old in-service vehicles do not meet circulation standards off the roads.
Localities are requested to investigate all sources of air emissions in the first 6 months of 2021
Air quality management
Realizing the adverse effects of air pollution to the people’s health and lives as well as on sustainable development, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), other ministries, line ministries, and localities have taken many measures to protect and improve air quality that has focused on the implementation of the tasks assigned in Prime Minister’s Decision No. 985a/QD-TTg. There have been some initial achievements, specifically as follows:
Firstly, formulating, completing, and implementing regulations on control of air pollution namely: (1) Stipulate responsibilities and some measures on air quality management in the Law on Environmental Protection 2014 and the decrees guiding the implementation of the Law. Currently, the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 which replaces the Law on Environmental Protection 2014 promulgates new provisions on the responsibility of developing a National Plan for Air Quality Management and Provincial Air Quality Management Plan; direction of the implementation of emergency measures in case serious air pollution occurs across the inter-provincial, inter-regional and cross-border scale; assessment, monitoring and information disclosure on air quality; warning residential communities of and to take measures to remediate air pollution that impacts community health; National action plan on air quality management to 2020, with vision to 2025; Planning of national natural resources and environment monitoring network in the period 2016 - 2025, with a vision to 2030; (2) Request manufacturing, business, service establishments, and industrial zones that discharge large amount of waste and emissions to install automatic and continuous monitoring equipment and transmit data to local and central environmental management agencies; (3) Develop and implement a number of programs and projects.
Secondly, strengthening information disclosure and advice on air pollution. There have been many positive changes in investment in monitoring activities and analysis of air pollution, especially in the big cities to provide warnings on air quality to the people and the community. Besides, the monitoring data, AQI, warnings and recommendations have been officially posted on the relevant websites. MONRE has regularly synthesized the results of monitoring and assessment of air quality to provide warnings and recommendations that have been officially posted on the website of the Vietnam Environment Administration Environment (vea.gov.vn). The Vietnamese AQI (VN_AQI) has been also published on mobile apps. Furthermore, the air quality index recorded in the national monitoring stations has been updated and published 24 hours a day at the website cem.gov.vn. The Hanoi People's Committee has also announced and warned about air quality at the website moitruongthudo.vn.
Thirdly, promoting communication activities, and raising public awareness about air pollution. Accordingly, the Government has directed the press agencies to participate in the propagation and dissemination of legislative documents, mechanisms and policies related to environmental protection and air quality management, and information on harmful effects of air pollution and the benefits of using public transport to improve air quality. Besides, it also has directed the development of programs, topics, and thematic articles and reports to propagate, disseminate, and raise awareness and responsibilities of officials, public servants, and residents about air quality.
Fourthly, strengthening international cooperation in the field of air quality management. To illustrate, MONRE has cooperated with Japan and the Clean Air Asia (CAI-ASIA) to study and propose solutions to reduce air pollution and CO2 emissions in Vietnam; worked with international organizations such as Japan Industry Association, World Bank, JICA, etc to organize seminars to strengthen the capacity of localities and managers at relevant ministries and line ministries on air pollution control. Particularly, Hà Nội City has cooperation with the World Bank to take samples and analyze the chemical composition of the fine particulate matter PM2.5 to determine the current status of the City's air pollution; working with the non-governmental organization C40 in updating and building the framework of the 3rd Climate Change Response Plan; working with the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) on public consultation, creating relationships between state management agencies and relevant organizations and individuals in reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and improvement of quality of climate and working with the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) in the research on assessment of the impacts of traffic on the air quality.
The localities have also gradually improved the air quality in their management areas: Developing and implementing the local air quality management plan; strengthening inspection and examination of the compliance of the establishments generating emissions with the regulations on environmental protection; improving state management capacity of air environment protection; building the necessary infrastructure for the transmission of industrial emissions data from the establishments that have installed automatic and continuous monitoring systems to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and MONRE. In particular, Hanoi City and HCMC have synchronously deployed many measures, including the issuance of related directives and regulations, and implementation of technical solutions to control emission sources from traffic and industrial activities.
On the other hand, there have been some existing shortcomings and restrictions in air quality management. For example, air pollution has become more serious in some areas and some periods. The resources, including organizational structure, human and financial resources, to perform the tasks of air quality management and the monitoring and information disclosure of air quality has not met the practical requirements. The public investment in the construction, installation and maintenance of continuous and automatic air monitoring stations has not been comparable with the socio-economic development and the need for practical management. The responsibilities for the management of air pollution in big cities and densely populated areas have not been identified. Besides, the awareness of the people and businesses about air environmental protection is not high. Many construction and traffic works have not met environmental requirements. At the same time, the burning of waste and post-harvest by-products, and littering have still occurred.
Control and forecast of the evolution of air quality by 2025
To take urgent and immediate measures to control and minimize negative impacts on the air environment, the PM assigned specific tasks to each Ministry, line Ministry and locality as follows:
MONRE:
To evaluate the implementation results of Decision No.985a/QD-TTg, proposing a plan for air quality management in the period 2021 - 2025 and then reporting to the PM in the first quarter of 2021; To strengthen the effective management and implementation of monitoring programs, strictly control the quality of monitoring of the air environment, disclose the monitoring results and promptly warn air pollution for the residents.; To immediately invest in and increase the capacity of air quality monitoring under the master plan on national environmental monitoring, ensuring that the evolution of air quality in urban areas and regions across the country shall be controlled, warned, and forecasted by 2025; To focus on reviewing and completing the system of national environmental technical regulations and standards for industrial emissions and emissions from road motor vehicles to approach those of the developed countries in the world. To review and report to the PM the implementation of the roadmap for the application of national technical regulations and standards for emissions from road motor vehicles. The tasks shall be completed in the fourth quarter of the year 2021;
To take the lead in developing, issuing criteria, and certifying eco-labels for environmentally friendly transportation products, vehicles and services; To assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with other Ministries, line Ministries and localities to review legislative documents on air environment protection, thereby completing, within its jurisdiction, or proposing to competent state agencies to complete regulations and policies on air pollution control.
Ministry of Transport:
To urgently elaborate national programs and schemes on the development of environmentally friendly transport and public transport system, including electric vehicles and then submit them to the PM and the Government. To promote propagation activities and encourage people to use public and environmentally friendly transports. To adopt the roadmap for the application of national environmental technical regulations for transport emissions. To guide and closely monitor the implementation of environmental protection measures, especially effective solutions to prevent, limit and minimize dust and emissions in road construction activities.
Ministry of Industry and Trade:
To promote pollution control over the projects and the establishments that generate a large amount of waste and potentially cause environmental pollution, namely thermal coal, petroleum, steel, chemicals and fertilizers, mineral processing and exploitation, etc. To research and develop policies to encourage and support enterprises to use clean energy and environmentally friendly technologies and efficiently use natural resources in production. To review and assess the capacity to manufacture, import, and supply fuel for motor vehicles following technical regulations and the roadmap for application of national emission technical regulations and standards to road motor vehicles in Việt Nam and then report to the PM before June 2021. To direct the implementation of additional power development planning of the provinces and cities to satisfy the needs for the development of vehicles using electricity. To study and develop regulations and standards for imported coal (the allowable standard limit for ash and sulfur content) to comply with environmental protection requirements. To propose policies on exploitation, processing and importing of raw materials (lithium, cobalt) to produce batteries for electric vehicles.
Ministry of Construction
To guide and inspect the enforcement of regulations and measures to control dust and emissions in construction activities and the implementation of urban planning to ensure that the areas of urban green space and water surface meeting the requirements of relevant regulations and standards.
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development:
To directs and guide the implementation of the collection, treatment and processing of post-harvest by-products into useful products. To strengthen propaganda to farmers to properly handle their agricultural by-products in compliance with environmental protection regulations instead of burning.
Ministry of Science and Technology:
To develop and promulgate national technical regulations on fuels towards reducing emissions of air pollutants under the roadmap for application of national environmental technical regulations on vehicle emissions. To support and invest in scientific research activities on the management and control of air quality.
Ministry of Health:
To study, assess and warn the risks of air pollution to public health and then propose measures to protect public health, priority to large urban areas and areas that have many sources of emissions with a high risk of pollution. To direct and inspect the implementation of the monitoring of impacts from the health sector's activities on the air environment. To increase control of air pollution from medical waste incinerators.
Ministry of Finance:
To take the lead in reviewing and guiding the implementation of preferential and supportive policies on environmental protection according to the provisions of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020.
Ministry of Public Security:
To direct the investigation and strictly handle environmental law violations causing serious air pollution.
Also, other ministries, including the Ministry of Information and Communications, MONRE, Vietnam Television, the Voice of Vietnam, People's Committees of provinces and cities directly under the central government, and press agencies promote communication and propaganda about the air quality, measures to prevent air pollution. To promptly provide information and warnings about air quality, the negative impacts and risks of air pollution to human health, and organizations and individuals that cause serious air pollution. To use information about air quality provided by competent authorities; strictly handle cases of spreading false information or causing confusion in the public by the laws.
In particular, the People's Committees of Hà Nội, HCM, and other provinces and cities at high risk of air pollution: Strictly implementing the development and implementation of the local quality management plan in accordance with the PMin Decision No. 985a/QD-TTg. To direct the adoption of response measures in case the air is seriously polluted in the area under their management. To implement the inventory of emission sources, monitoring, and evaluation of particular matter pollution (PM10, PM2.5). These tasks shall be completed before December 31st, 2021. To develop and implement the planning of the local quality monitoring network. To allocate resources for investment, additional installation, and increasing the number of continuous automatic air quality monitoring stations; regularly organizing the local periodic air quality monitoring programs; promptly updating and providing information on local air quality control to the public. To speed up the promulgation and implementation of the public transport system development plan, giving priority to vehicles using clean energy; withdrawing and eliminating old motor vehicles which use out-of-date technologies and do not meet the on-road standards. To develop non-motorized transportation; encouraging people to use public transport and promoting propaganda on the use of environmentally friendly transport…
In the passing years, it has witnessed the increasing tendency in air pollution in many localities across the country, particularly in big cities such as Hà Nội and Hồ Chí Minh City ̣(HCMC) that has seriously affected socio-economic development and public health. The main cause is dust, exhaust emissions from vehicles, construction activities and industrial activities with a large number of emissions which is not yet effectively controlled. In addition, the area of green trees and water surface in urban development has not met the requirements. The implementation of legal regulations, programs and tasks on air pollution control has not been synchronous and effective.
To enhance the control of air pollution, minimizing adverse impacts to people's health, and promoting economic - social development, on January 18th 2021, the Prime Minister (PM) issued Directive No.03/CT-TTg on strengthening the control of air pollution. The Directive requires ministries, People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities to focus on promoting the implementation of programs and tasks of air quality management in accordance with the direction of the PM in Decision No. 985a/QD-TTg dated June 1st, 2016 approving the National Action Plan on air quality management up to 2020, with the vision towards 2025. In particular, from now to mid-2021, it is urgent to review and evaluate the enforcement of the regulations on dust and emissions control in industrial establishments and construction and transport activities under the respective scope of management; propose competent agencies to consider temporarily suspending or suspending the establishments causing serious environmental pollution by the laws.
Evolution of air quality in big cities
In the period 2016 - 2020, although the air quality varied from year to year, many cities, big cities and industrial areas have struggled with alarming air dust pollution. Particularly, particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) is the most concern in big cities like Hà Nội and HCMC. The level of fine dust pollution tended to increase from 2017 to 2019 and decrease in 2020. The results of air quality monitoring showed that most values of other parameters such as NO2, O3, CO, SO2 were still within the allowable limits of QCVN No. 05:2013/BTNMT. In rural and mountainous areas, the air quality has remained relatively good and moderate.
The air quality index (AQI) shows that the air quality in Hanoi City and some Northern cities, normally in winter, is poor or even very poor. In HCMC, the air quality also reaches low levels in the dry season. In Huế and Đà Nẵng cities, in general, the air quality remains good and moderate.
In Việt Nam, the air quality generally varies according to different regions and different seasons in a year. The average annual concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 in urban areas in the North are normally higher than in the Central and the South. The concentrations of PM 10 and PM 2.5 in the Northern provinces fluctuate more sharply in winter with less rain, from September to March the following year (The observations are recorded at monitoring stations in Hà Nội, Phú Thọ, Quảng Ninh). On the other hand, the annual mean concentration of PM 2.5 and PM 10 at all automatic air monitoring stations in Hanoi in the period of 2018 - 2020 exceeded the allowable limits compared to QCVN from 1.1 to 2, 2 times with the highest recorded in 2019. Meanwhile, in the cities in the South-Central Coast, typically Đà Nẵng and Nha Trang, the values of PM 10 and PM 2.5 fluctuated slightly from month to month within a year. In the cities in the Southern region, the values of particulate matter had considerably increased in the dry season (from April to September) and decreased in the rainy season (from October to March the following year). In HCMC, the annual mean concentration of PM2.5 was stable with a negligible variation.
The main cause is dust, exhaust emissions from vehicles, construction activities, and industrial activities with a large amount of emissions that are not yet effectively controlled. In addition, the area of green trees and water surface in urban development has not met the requirements. Data from the People's Committee of Hà Nội shows that there are more than 770,000 cars and nearly 5.8 million motorcycles in Hà Nội and about 700,000 cars and 7.5 million motorcycles in HCMC in use except for many vehicles from other localities that regularly travel into the city and the military vehicles used for public service purpose. Particularly, many old in-service vehicles do not meet circulation standards off the roads.
Air quality management
Realizing the adverse effects of air pollution to the people’s health and lives as well as on sustainable development, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), other ministries, line ministries, and localities have taken many measures to protect and improve air quality that has focused on the implementation of the tasks assigned in Prime Minister’s Decision No. 985a/QD-TTg. There have been some initial achievements, specifically as follows:
Firstly, formulating, completing, and implementing regulations on control of air pollution namely: (1) Stipulate responsibilities and some measures on air quality management in the Law on Environmental Protection 2014 and the decrees guiding the implementation of the Law. Currently, the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 which replaces the Law on Environmental Protection 2014 promulgates new provisions on the responsibility of developing a National Plan for Air Quality Management and Provincial Air Quality Management Plan; direction of the implementation of emergency measures in case serious air pollution occurs across the inter-provincial, inter-regional and cross-border scale; assessment, monitoring and information disclosure on air quality; warning residential communities of and to take measures to remediate air pollution that impacts community health; National action plan on air quality management to 2020, with vision to 2025; Planning of national natural resources and environment monitoring network in the period 2016 - 2025, with a vision to 2030; (2) Request manufacturing, business, service establishments, and industrial zones that discharge large amount of waste and emissions to install automatic and continuous monitoring equipment and transmit data to local and central environmental management agencies; (3) Develop and implement a number of programs and projects.
Secondly, strengthening information disclosure and advice on air pollution. There have been many positive changes in investment in monitoring activities and analysis of air pollution, especially in the big cities to provide warnings on air quality to the people and the community. Besides, the monitoring data, AQI, warnings and recommendations have been officially posted on the relevant websites. MONRE has regularly synthesized the results of monitoring and assessment of air quality to provide warnings and recommendations that have been officially posted on the website of the Vietnam Environment Administration Environment (vea.gov.vn). The Vietnamese AQI (VN_AQI) has been also published on mobile apps. Furthermore, the air quality index recorded in the national monitoring stations has been updated and published 24 hours a day at the website cem.gov.vn. The Hanoi People's Committee has also announced and warned about air quality at the website moitruongthudo.vn.
Thirdly, promoting communication activities, and raising public awareness about air pollution. Accordingly, the Government has directed the press agencies to participate in the propagation and dissemination of legislative documents, mechanisms and policies related to environmental protection and air quality management, and information on harmful effects of air pollution and the benefits of using public transport to improve air quality. Besides, it also has directed the development of programs, topics, and thematic articles and reports to propagate, disseminate, and raise awareness and responsibilities of officials, public servants, and residents about air quality.
Fourthly, strengthening international cooperation in the field of air quality management. To illustrate, MONRE has cooperated with Japan and the Clean Air Asia (CAI-ASIA) to study and propose solutions to reduce air pollution and CO2 emissions in Vietnam; worked with international organizations such as Japan Industry Association, World Bank, JICA, etc to organize seminars to strengthen the capacity of localities and managers at relevant ministries and line ministries on air pollution control. Particularly, Hà Nội City has cooperation with the World Bank to take samples and analyze the chemical composition of the fine particulate matter PM2.5 to determine the current status of the City's air pollution; working with the non-governmental organization C40 in updating and building the framework of the 3rd Climate Change Response Plan; working with the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) on public consultation, creating relationships between state management agencies and relevant organizations and individuals in reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and improvement of quality of climate and working with the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) in the research on assessment of the impacts of traffic on the air quality.
The localities have also gradually improved the air quality in their management areas: Developing and implementing the local air quality management plan; strengthening inspection and examination of the compliance of the establishments generating emissions with the regulations on environmental protection; improving state management capacity of air environment protection; building the necessary infrastructure for the transmission of industrial emissions data from the establishments that have installed automatic and continuous monitoring systems to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and MONRE. In particular, Hanoi City and HCMC have synchronously deployed many measures, including the issuance of related directives and regulations, and implementation of technical solutions to control emission sources from traffic and industrial activities.
On the other hand, there have been some existing shortcomings and restrictions in air quality management. For example, air pollution has become more serious in some areas and some periods. The resources, including organizational structure, human and financial resources, to perform the tasks of air quality management and the monitoring and information disclosure of air quality has not met the practical requirements. The public investment in the construction, installation and maintenance of continuous and automatic air monitoring stations has not been comparable with the socio-economic development and the need for practical management. The responsibilities for the management of air pollution in big cities and densely populated areas have not been identified. Besides, the awareness of the people and businesses about air environmental protection is not high. Many construction and traffic works have not met environmental requirements. At the same time, the burning of waste and post-harvest by-products, and littering have still occurred.
Control and forecast of the evolution of air quality by 2025
To take urgent and immediate measures to control and minimize negative impacts on the air environment, the PM assigned specific tasks to each Ministry, line Ministry and locality as follows:
MONRE:
To evaluate the implementation results of Decision No.985a/QD-TTg, proposing a plan for air quality management in the period 2021 - 2025 and then reporting to the PM in the first quarter of 2021; To strengthen the effective management and implementation of monitoring programs, strictly control the quality of monitoring of the air environment, disclose the monitoring results and promptly warn air pollution for the residents.; To immediately invest in and increase the capacity of air quality monitoring under the master plan on national environmental monitoring, ensuring that the evolution of air quality in urban areas and regions across the country shall be controlled, warned, and forecasted by 2025; To focus on reviewing and completing the system of national environmental technical regulations and standards for industrial emissions and emissions from road motor vehicles to approach those of the developed countries in the world. To review and report to the PM the implementation of the roadmap for the application of national technical regulations and standards for emissions from road motor vehicles. The tasks shall be completed in the fourth quarter of the year 2021;
To take the lead in developing, issuing criteria, and certifying eco-labels for environmentally friendly transportation products, vehicles and services; To assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with other Ministries, line Ministries and localities to review legislative documents on air environment protection, thereby completing, within its jurisdiction, or proposing to competent state agencies to complete regulations and policies on air pollution control.
Ministry of Transport:
To urgently elaborate national programs and schemes on the development of environmentally friendly transport and public transport system, including electric vehicles and then submit them to the PM and the Government. To promote propagation activities and encourage people to use public and environmentally friendly transports. To adopt the roadmap for the application of national environmental technical regulations for transport emissions. To guide and closely monitor the implementation of environmental protection measures, especially effective solutions to prevent, limit and minimize dust and emissions in road construction activities.
Ministry of Industry and Trade:
To promote pollution control over the projects and the establishments that generate a large amount of waste and potentially cause environmental pollution, namely thermal coal, petroleum, steel, chemicals and fertilizers, mineral processing and exploitation, etc. To research and develop policies to encourage and support enterprises to use clean energy and environmentally friendly technologies and efficiently use natural resources in production. To review and assess the capacity to manufacture, import, and supply fuel for motor vehicles following technical regulations and the roadmap for application of national emission technical regulations and standards to road motor vehicles in Việt Nam and then report to the PM before June 2021. To direct the implementation of additional power development planning of the provinces and cities to satisfy the needs for the development of vehicles using electricity. To study and develop regulations and standards for imported coal (the allowable standard limit for ash and sulfur content) to comply with environmental protection requirements. To propose policies on exploitation, processing and importing of raw materials (lithium, cobalt) to produce batteries for electric vehicles.
Ministry of Construction
To guide and inspect the enforcement of regulations and measures to control dust and emissions in construction activities and the implementation of urban planning to ensure that the areas of urban green space and water surface meeting the requirements of relevant regulations and standards.
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development:
To directs and guide the implementation of the collection, treatment and processing of post-harvest by-products into useful products. To strengthen propaganda to farmers to properly handle their agricultural by-products in compliance with environmental protection regulations instead of burning.
Ministry of Science and Technology:
To develop and promulgate national technical regulations on fuels towards reducing emissions of air pollutants under the roadmap for application of national environmental technical regulations on vehicle emissions. To support and invest in scientific research activities on the management and control of air quality.
Ministry of Health:
To study, assess and warn the risks of air pollution to public health and then propose measures to protect public health, priority to large urban areas and areas that have many sources of emissions with a high risk of pollution. To direct and inspect the implementation of the monitoring of impacts from the health sector's activities on the air environment. To increase control of air pollution from medical waste incinerators.
Ministry of Finance:
To take the lead in reviewing and guiding the implementation of preferential and supportive policies on environmental protection according to the provisions of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020.
Ministry of Public Security:
To direct the investigation and strictly handle environmental law violations causing serious air pollution.
Also, other ministries, including the Ministry of Information and Communications, MONRE, Vietnam Television, the Voice of Vietnam, People's Committees of provinces and cities directly under the central government, and press agencies promote communication and propaganda about the air quality, measures to prevent air pollution. To promptly provide information and warnings about air quality, the negative impacts and risks of air pollution to human health, and organizations and individuals that cause serious air pollution. To use information about air quality provided by competent authorities; strictly handle cases of spreading false information or causing confusion in the public by the laws.
In particular, the People's Committees of Hà Nội, HCM, and other provinces and cities at high risk of air pollution: Strictly implementing the development and implementation of the local quality management plan in accordance with the PMin Decision No. 985a/QD-TTg. To direct the adoption of response measures in case the air is seriously polluted in the area under their management. To implement the inventory of emission sources, monitoring, and evaluation of particular matter pollution (PM10, PM2.5). These tasks shall be completed before December 31st, 2021. To develop and implement the planning of the local quality monitoring network. To allocate resources for investment, additional installation, and increasing the number of continuous automatic air quality monitoring stations; regularly organizing the local periodic air quality monitoring programs; promptly updating and providing information on local air quality control to the public. To speed up the promulgation and implementation of the public transport system development plan, giving priority to vehicles using clean energy; withdrawing and eliminating old motor vehicles which use out-of-date technologies and do not meet the on-road standards. To develop non-motorized transportation; encouraging people to use public transport and promoting propaganda on the use of environmentally friendly transport…
Lê Hoài Nam - Director
Nguyễn Hoàng Đức
Department of Environmental Quality
Vietnam Environment Administration (VEA)
(Source: Vietnam Environment Administration Magazine, English Edition I - 2021)
