16/05/2018
Over the past time, the implementation of 3 schemes on environmental protection of river basins (Cầu - Nhuệ, Đáy rivers, Đồng Nai river system) has achieved positive results, contributing to reducing pollution in the river basins. Following the results achieved in previous years, in 2017, MONRE co-chaired with 3 River Basin Environmental Protection Committees for Cầu - Nhuệ, Đáy rivers and Đồng Nai river system to direct, urge and organize the implementation of the schemes.
Some results of implementing 3 schemes on river basin environmental protection
To direct, coordinate and organize the implementation of policies and laws
In 2017, a number of documents related to environmental protection of water resources promulgated such as the Government's decrees on the method of calculating and collecting fees for the permits to exploit water resources; provisions on sanctioning administrative violations in the field of water and mineral resources… MONRE's circulars regulating the monitoring of water resource exploitation and use, the national technical regulation on wastewater from animal husbandry and processing of cassava starch. In addition, ministries and sectors have promulgated circulars and legal guiding documents, creating the legal and policy framework and contributing to the promotion of environmental protection, in general, and environmental protection of river basins, in particular. Provinces and cities in 3 river basins have also issued relevant documents such as water resource planning, and zoning of wastewater receiving areas, list of and measures to deal with seriously polluting establishments, and regulations on environmental protection fee for wastewater, solid waste...
In implementation of Directive No.25/CT-TTg dated 31/8/2016 of the Prime Minister on some urgent tasks and solutions for environmental protection, the River Basin Environmental Protection Committees for 3 river basins have cooperated with MONRE to implement the inspection and examination of those establishments that have a wastewater flow of 200 m3/day or more; to research and prepare a list of industrial zones and clusters that may potentially cause serious environmental pollution that requires special monitoring nationwide; to formulate a scheme on census, assessment and classification of sources of wastewater discharge nationwide; to build a national database on wastewater discharge sources; to strengthen accountability, to have appropriate mechanisms to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the operation of the River Basin Environmental Protection Committees.
Currently, MONRE is leading the development of the draft Decree amending and supplementing a number of decrees detailing the implementation of the Law on environmental protection; at the same time, to submit to the Prime Minister a Scheme for the establishment of the river basin Committees (in accordance with the Law on water resources in 2012), including the proposal to restructure 3 River Basin Environmental Protection Committees; to complete the draft circular on assessment of bearing capacity and wastewater receiving capacity of rivers and lakes; Circular on management of river-bed sand and gravel, protection of river-beds, river banks, floodplains...
Maintaining and improving the water quality of rivers and streams on 3 river basins
Vietnam Environment Administration has been implementing the monitoring program of water environment on 3 river basins, with frequency of 5 times/year including 42 monitoring points on the Cầu river basin, 42 points on the Nhuệ - Đáy river basin, 49 points in the Đồng Nai river system basin, and some points at borders of provinces. Local monitoring programs are also implemented. Results of monitoring in 2017 show that on the basin of Cầu river, from the upstream in Bắc Cạn province to section through Thái Nguyên city, water quality is at a good level; at Chợ Mới (Bắc Cạn) point, water quality has improved compared to 2016. However, in the section through Thái Nguyên in July - August 2017, water quality was deteriorated, with increased COD, BOD5 content and turbidity. In the section running through Bắc Giang and Bắc Ninh, the quality of water had declined considerably due to the water intake of Ca Lo river in Bắc Giang and Ngu Huyen Khe river in Bắc Ninh, water quality was at a moderate level, only used for irrigation, or water transportation purposes.
The quality of Nhuệ - Đáy rivers (section flowing through Hà Nội and Hà Nam) in July - August 2017 had improved. WQI values range from 52 - 74, water quality at all sites was at a moderate level; the water could be used for irrigation purpose. At the downstream of Đáy river, section flowing through Nam Định and Ninh Bình, water quality had declined at most points. The water quality of Bồi river, Hoàng Long river (Ninh Bình) and Đào river at Lộc Hà (Nam Định) had slightly decreased. All of Hanoi's inner-city rivers have a deteriorating water quality; at most of the monitoring points, the water was severely polluted (WQI ranges from 16 - 27).
The water quality of the rivers in the basin of the Đồng Nai river system had only reached an average level; the water quality of Saigon river continued to change markedly from upstream to downstream, and remained stable compared to 2016. In the upstream section from Tha La bridge (Tây Ninh) to Ben Suc Bridge (HCMC), the water quality was at a good level, suitable for domestic water supply. Starting from the confluence of Thi Tinh River through My Phuoc Industrial Zone (Bình Dương province) to downstream at Tan Thuan Port (HCMC), water quality is only at a moderate level, suitable for irrigation and other similar purposes. Meanwhile, the water quality of the Đồng Nai river is affected in turbidity and TSS parameters due to flow characteristics (especially in the rainy season).
Implementation of tasks and projects on environmental protection of river basins
At the central level, MONRE continues to improve and operate the Portal of river basin environment for the Nhuệ - Đáy, Cầu rivers and Đồng Nai river System; The Ministry of Construction has guided and organized the implementation of the master plan for drainage and wastewater treatment system in residential areas and industrial zones in 3 river basins up to 2030, and solid waste management master plan for 3 river basins until 2030; The Ministry of Transport strengthens the management of traffic order and safety as well as the prevention of environmental pollution in inland waterways and maritime transport, implement inland waterway dredging projects, and maritime navigation channels and storm shelters at basin rivers; The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development deploys investment projects according to the road-map in Decision No.937/QD-TTg dated 1/7/2009 on the drainage planning of the Nhuệ river system. Other ministries (Ministries of Health, Industry and Trade, Public Security...) have developed their specialized tasks integrated with environmental protection.
At the localities, 3 River Basin Environmental Protection Committees continues to urge the implementation of the schemes on the environmental protection of river basins under the guidance of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, focusing on statistical work and development of the database of wastewater discharge sources to the river basins. Besides, many construction works and projects on solid waste, wastewater treatment are invested with a total amount of up to trillions of dongs. Provinces and centrally-run cities on 3 river basins have also been active in implementing projects to renovate, dredge, clear water flows and water sanitation, upgrade water drainage systems, and coordinate in settlement of some inter- provincial issues. In addition, within the framework of the Capacity Building Project for Water Management in River Basin in Việt Nam funded by JICA, in 2017, the project has organized training courses for 4 provinces in the basin of the Đồng Nai river system. (HCMC, Đồng Nai, Bình Dương and Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu), 3 provinces on the Cầu river basin (Bắc Giang, Bắc Ninh and Thái Nguyên); the implementation of the pollution management project for industrial zones in Đồng Nai, Nhuệ-Đáy river basins from the World Bank's ODA in Nam Định, Hà Nam, Đồng Nai and Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu provinces. At the same time, there is investment in automatic surface water environment monitoring stations to control water pollution caused by the industrial zones on river basins. Up to now, 17 automatic surface water monitoring points have been constructed, installed and commissioned, including 9 stations in the Đồng Nai river system (6 stations in Đồng Nai province, 3 in Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu province) and 8 stations on Nhuệ - Đáy river basin (Nam Định province: 4 stations, Hà Nam: 4 stations).
On the other hand, investment projects on the construction of urban drainage and sewerage systems have also been strengthened, helping to increase the number of urban centers having concentrated wastewater treatment systems, contributing to the improvement of water quality in the river basins, such as the project of building drainage and wastewater treatment system in Bien Hoa city phase 1, capacity of 9,000 m3/day (Đồng Nai province); construction and upgrading of the drainage and wastewater treatment system in Dong Xoai Town (Bình Phước province), Thuận An urban wastewater treatment plant (Bình Dương), capacity of phase 1 is 17,000 m3/day. Especially, the project of Yên Xá wastewater treatment system construction (Hà Nội), with the capacity of 270,000 m3/day, helping to "revive" the Tô Lịch, Lừ and Sét rivers and part of the Nhuệ river.
Strengthening the environmental management and statistics, development of databases of wastewater discharge sources on the river basins
Over the past time, the inspection, examination and control of pollution have received good attention. On 3 river basins, from 2016 - 2017, the inspectorate of natural resources and environment sector, the environmental police force and the interdisciplinary inspection and supervision delegations have conducted inspection and examination of hundreds of establishments, and collect fines up to tens of billions of dongs. Ministries and sectors have also conducted inspection, examination and supervision of units and establishments under their respective management. The appraisal of environmental impact assessment reports and issuance of permits for discharge into river basins continued to be carried out vigorously. People's Committees of provinces and cities in 3 river basins have paid much attention to environmental protection, ensuring that they achieve and exceed 1% of budget expenditures annually for environmental protection in the province.
In addition, information on major manufacturing/business facilities operating on 3 river basins was investigated in detail and updated on the river basin portal, thereby serving well for environmental management work. According to statistics in 2017, there are 48 industrial zones (IZs), 84 industrial clusters (ICs), 141 trade villages, 246 health facilities and more than 3,500 enterprises in the Cầu river basin area. There are about 2,521 wastewater discharge sources in the Nhuệ-Đáy river, including 1,672 sources of production and business bases, 126 of industrial zones and industrial clusters, 137 health facilities (hospitals), 586 trade villages. There are about 5,217 wastewater discharge sources in the basin of Đồng Nai river system, including 125 IZs, 32 ICs, 3 export processing zones (EPZ), 200 health facilities and 4,297 manufacturing plants.
Coordination in solving environmental problems in the localities, and inter-provincial and inter-regional environmental issues
In recent years, on the Cầu river Basin, with the efforts of 6 provinces, environmental issues have been gradually resolved. At the Nhuệ - Đáy rivers, the long- standing inter- provincial problems in many years is wastewater discharge from households, industrial establishments and trade villages of Hà Nội city into the Nhuệ - Đáy rivers, affecting the downstream provinces, especially Hà Nam. In response to these challenges, provinces and cities in the basin have increasingly coordinated the monitoring of wastewater discharge sources to reduce pollution in downstream areas.
Particularly on the basin of the Đồng Nai river system, provinces and cities have signed and implemented the Regulation No.37/QCPH-TPHCM-BRVT-DN-BD-TN-LA-TG-BP-LD on 6/1/2017 on state management in the field of water resources, mineral resources and environmental protection in the areas adjacent to the administrative boundaries among HCMC, Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu, Đồng Nai, Bình Dương, Tây Ninh, Long An and Tiền Giang. At the same time, the provinces have taken the initiative in coordinating the prevention and treatment of pollution in some hot spots such as Đồng Nai and Bình Thuận for the pollution of the Giếng river; HCMC and Bình Dương in dealing with pollution of Ba Bò canal; with Long An province in addressing pollution in Thay Cai - An Ha channel; to attach importance to environmental management in provincial boundary areas; to coordinate in the operation of reservoirs, irrigation and hydro-power works; to establish inter-provincial environmental monitoring program...
A number of difficulties, obstacles and deployment plans for the implementation of the schemes of environmental protection in river basins
In addition to the above- mentioned results, the implementation of 3 environmental protection schemes still have difficulties and problems that have not been resolved, specifically: There are no dedicated fund or financial mechanisms for the implementation. The target program to support the thorough treatment of public utility establishments causing serious environmental pollution for the 2016 - 2020 period has not been approved. The progress of investment in environmental infrastructure in localities is slow; the statistics and management of wastewater discharge sources are not regularly implemented. The addressing of inter- regional environmental issues is slow; the number of staff and capacity of environmental management agencies in the localities have not met the practical requirements.
For the implementation of the 3 schemes to be effective, in the coming time, the River Basin Environmental Protection Committees should focus on two breakthrough tasks: to develop and implement an integrated water resource management plan, and the comprehensive tasks and projects on the river basins, at the same time, strengthening the mechanism of coordination and supervision between provinces and cities to solve inter- provincial issues. In both of these tasks, the lead role of MONRE is particularly important.
In addition, at the meeting sessions of River Basin Environmental Protection Committees in 2017, the Committees, ministries, sectors and localities agreed a number of major orientations in 2018 and the following years: To continue studying and proposing a number of specific policies and mechanisms of environmental protection on the principle of consistency and uniformity throughout the basin, not to be divided by administrative boundaries. In the immediate future, it is suggested to propose to the Prime Minister to promptly consider and approve the Scheme on the establishment of the River Basin Committees nationwide on the basis of consolidating and adjusting the organizational structure of the current River Basin Environmental Protection Committee; To intensify the inspection and examination of the observance of the laws on environmental protection; thoroughly handle establishments which cause serious environmental pollution; to continue investing in monitoring systems and environmental technical infrastructure; To implement inter-sectoral, inter-regional planning, programs and projects; To develop and implement environmental protection projects and works on river basins; To set up a database of wastewater discharge sources and plans for management and handling of wastewater sources belonging to 3 river basins; Publicize the main discharge sources (>200 m3/day); To strengthen the inter-provincial coordination in the prevention and treatment of environmental pollution and degradation in some hot spots of pollution in rivers and streams running through many provinces, especially in the provincial boundary areas. Each locality, depending on its location on the basin and resources, selects priority and urgent tasks and activities for implementation. The upstream localities shall enhance forest protection and development, create aquatic resources for the basin, control hydro-power projects and the exploitation of minerals. Localities downstream shall strengthen waste management and treatment, rational urban development planning and strictly control sources of wastes that may cause environmental pollution.
In general, over 10 years of implementation of 3 schemes on environmental protection in river basins, the awareness of Ministries, sectors and localities on environmental responsibility in the whole basin has been improved remarkably. It is expected that in the coming time, when the River Basin Committees are established and put into operation, the integrated water resource management mechanism will be widely deployed with high determination of the provinces and cities on the river basin and the effective participation of ministries and sectors.
The Ba Bò channel (the section passing through Bình Dương province) was dredged, cleaned, renovated and embanked
MSc. Nguyễn Thượng Hiền - Director
Department of Waste Management and Environmental Promotion
Vietnam Environment Administration
(Source: Vietnam Environment Administration Magazine, English Edition I-2018)
