05/03/2020
The 13th meeting of the Environmental Protection Commission of the Low Catchment Basin of the Đồng Nai River took place on November 22nd, 2019 in Bà Rịa -Vũng Tàu Province.
In the 2019 - 2020 terms, the Commission worked with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), other Ministries and Government agencies, and local authorities of provinces and cities to make further investment and improve the monitoring system and database for the management of surface water. The Commission and its counterparts developed and implemented plans and projects, constructed facilities to upgrade the sewage networks for local areas, and enhanced co-operative activities for provinces and cities to deal with environmental issues they have in common.
The Ceremony that transfers the Chairmanship of the Environmental Protection Commission of the Low Catchment
Basin of the Nhuệ - Đáy rivers to Chairman of the Hà Nội People’s Committee from Chairman of the Ninh Bình People’s Committee
Besides, environmental issues were handled comprehensively and spontaneously, and positive results were made. Professional units of local authorities worked better together to share their lessons and experiences so that the environment was better protected.
Deputy Minister of MONRE Võ Tuấn Nhân highly appreciated the Commission had made good efforts in its term 2019 - 2020 with assistance of 11 cities and provinces in the region: Đồng Nai, Bà Rịa -Vũng Tàu, Hồ Chí Minh City, Bình Dương, Bình Phước, Long An, Tây Ninh, Lâm Đồng, Đắk Nông, Ninh Thuận and Bình Thuận. The implementation of the Master plan on environmental protection for Đồng Nai River’s low catchment basin until 2020 brought some positive results in deal with environmental pollution and improve the quality of water of the Đồng Nai River network. The activities included the installation of the monitoring system and the development of a shared database, the administration of waste sources, the development of legal policies on environmental protection; the upgrade of the sewage networks for urban areas, the management of waste water that is disposed by industrial parks; and the settlement of environmental issues in shared areas of the provinces and cities. But there remained obstacles, for example, local authorities did not connect well and environmental violations were still found at business and production sites.
According to Deputy Minister Võ Tuấn Nhân, the 11 authorities of provinces and cities in the Đồng Nai River’s low catchment basin, with assistance of Ministries and Government agencies, must make further efforts and work harder with the commission chairman to boost the region’s socio-economic growth and better improve environmental condition for the river basin.
At the 13th meeting, a ceremony was held to transfer the Chairmanship of the commission for the fifth term 2020-21 from the Chairman of the Bà Rịa - Vũng Tàu People’s Committee to the Chairman of the Long An People’s Committee. Speaking at the ceremony, the new chairman Trần Văn Cẩn said the regional provinces and cities must develop a shared monitoring system and focus on improving the sewage networks for industrial parks, industrial zones and residential areas. The Chairman also asked the provinces, cities, Ministries and government agencies to co-work better so that the Dong Nai River’s low catchment basin has better environmental conditions and localities in the region can achieve sustainable socio-economic development.
The 11th meeting of the Environmental Protection Commission of the Low Catchment Basin of the Nhuệ - Đáy rivers took place on November 29th, 2019 in Ninh Bình Province
The meeting was attended by the Chairman of the Environmental Protection Commission of the Low Catchment Basin of the Nhuệ - Đáy rivers, Chairman of the Ninh Binh People’s Committee, Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Võ Tuấn Nhân, Vice Chairman of the Hà Nội People’s Committee Nguyễn Doãn Toản and 150 representatives from other provincial people’s committees, provincial departments of natural resources and environment and other Ministries and Government agencies.
The Commission chairman cum Chairman of the Ninh Bình People’s Committee Đinh Văn Điến said at the meeting that the Commission in the 2019 - 2020 term had worked closely with the MONRE, other Ministries and Government agencies, and five provinces and cities in the low catchment basin to implement the Master plan for environmental protection of the low catchment basin of the Nhuệ - Đáy rivers. The plan concentrated on dealing with environmental issues and managing sources of waste that the provinces and cities in the region were facing. On August 13th, 2019, the Commission issued Document No. 70/UBND to implement the Project on environmental protection of the low catchment basin of the Nhuệ - Đáy rivers. The focus of the project included the implementation of environmental protection plans in provinces, inspection and management of waste sources in local areas, the development of a waste source database in the basin, reviewing, evaluating and managing large-scale sources of waste water that were likely to have big environmental issues and impacts, the management of solid waste and projects with chances to create serious pollution in local areas and enhancing co-operation among local authorities on environmental protection.
According to the Office of the Commission, the quality of water was poor at the stretches that run through urban areas and production facilities. On Nhuệ River, the quality of water was often low and a large number of stretches, such as the one flowing through Hà Nội, were heavily polluted with the water quality index (WQI) below 25 especially in the dry season. Meanwhile the rainy season provided an extra amount of water for the river flow, so the percentage of polluting substances in the water became lower, making the quality of water average. On Day River, the quality of water was better with most of the monitoring stations posting their WQIs higher than 51 and the quality of water improved along the river from Hà Nội to Ninh Bình. Some stretches of the river running through Ninh Bình Province may provide water for living purposes but the water must be processed before being delivered. At the upstream of Đáy River, which runs through Hà Nội, the water was heavily contaminated due to the city’s production and living activities, thus the river was used for transportation only. The quality of water in the rivers that are in Ha Nội such as Tô Lịch, Kim Ngưu and Lừ was always low and heavily contaminated with WQIs ranging from 16 to 25. At other sites of the City such as Nghĩa Đô, Cầu Mới and Cầu Sét, the quality of water was average with WQIs lying between 26 and 50 and the water can only be used for transportation.
To resolve the issue, MONRE had worked with cities and provinces in the low catchment basin of Nhuệ - Đáy rivers to list out all sources of waste water. Up to date, 85 percent of all industrial zones had finished constructing their collective waste water treatment plants and strictly followed the rules on environmental protection; less than 30 per cent of all industrial parks had been developing their collective waste water treatment plants - except Hà Nội where 60 percent of all industrial parks had developed collective treatment plants. Meanwhile, waste water released by craft villages was not gathered and processed, 65 percent of waste water coming in Nhuệ and Đáy rivers was from households and 43 of all 45 production facilities had completed processing environmental pollution.
Besides, MONRE had proposed the Prime Minister approve the development of a new Commission of Low Catchment Basin, of which the Environmental Protection Commission of the Low Catchment Basin of the Nhuệ -Đáy rivers is a member. The Ministry had developed and submitted to the Government the draft Decree No. 40/2019/ND-CP dated August 13, 2019 to adjust the Decree instructing the implementation of the Law of Environmental Protection. The Ministry had also carried out the Program to completely handle polluting public facilities in 2016-20, which was approved by the Prime Minister under Decision No. 807/QD-TTg on July 3, 2018 - the program included the construction of a waste water treatment plant for the low catchment basin of the Nhuệ - Đáy rivers. In addition, a database was developed for sources of waste under Decision No. 140/QD-TTg dated January 6, 2018 and Circular No. 76/2017/TT-BTNMT was released on December 29th, 2017 to evaluate the ability of rivers and lakes to absorb and load waste water.
Provinces and cities in the low catchment basin of the Nhuệ - Đáy rivers had also issued a lot of regulations that dealt with waste water and household waste, fees of waste collection, transportation and management, and solid industrial waste. In the meantime, hundreds of projects, facilities and management units were developed and implemented such as the plantation of upstream forest in Hòa Bình Province, construction of waste treatment plants for craft villages in the provinces of Hà Nam, Ninh Bình and the capital of Hà Nội, installation of sewage system for hospitals, and the promotion of microbilogical and biochemical products to help Hà Nội households process waste water before it was dumped into Tô Lịch River.
However, during the implementation of the project to improve the environmental conditions of the Nhuệ - Đáy rivers’ low catchment basin, there were some difficulties and challenges. Local people and production facilities still violated the environmental protection rules in a number of areas as the waste water they disposed was of very poor quality. Meanwhile, funding for local authorities to perform environmental duties was low and the communication or connection between local authorities themselves and Government agencies had not met the expectations despite making improvements. Local Governments had not collected data on sources of waste frequently and people’s awareness was modest about environmental protection.
Deputy Minister of MONRE Võ Tuấn Nhân spoke highly of the activities the commission had accomplished in its fifth term of 2019 and there were some improvements in performing tasks to improve the quality of water and protect the environment in the low catchment basin of the Nhuệ - Đáy rivers. The Environmental Protection Commission of the Low Catchment Basin of the Nhuệ - Đáy rivers would need to improve its performance in the fifth term of 2020. To do so, Deputy Minister asked participants of the meeting to discuss following topics: the administration of waste sources, inter-provincial polluted sites, assessment of rivers’ capacity to absorb and load waste water, provincial co-operation in dealing with inter-provincial polluted sites, and assessment of the Development plan for Nhuệ and Đáy rivers in 2008 - 2020 and the future plan for the region.
The 15th meeting of the Environmental Protection Commission of the Low Catchment Basin of the Cầu River
At the meeting, participants discussed the fifth-term Project on environmental protection of the low catchment basin of the Nhuệ - Đáy rivers, addressed the challenges provinces and cities in the basin had to face and suggested solutions to improve the performance of the Environmental Protection Commission of the Low Catchment Basin of the Nhuệ - Đáy rivers in the future. According to participants, the organization and operation of the commission must be integrated into the new Commission of Low Catchment Basin under a MONRE draft proposal, which had been submitted to the Prime Minister for consideration, while the commission must enhance the supervision of the implementation of the Master plan on environmental protection of the low catchment basin among local authorities. Participants also recommended MONRE hasten the process of collecting data from sources of waste, develop a plan to manage sources of waste water, and publish details of waste sources on the internet. The Ministry of Construction was required to instruct provinces and cities in the low catchment basin of Nhuệ and Đáy rivers to quickly develop their waste water treatment plant and sewage network for residential areas and industrial zones until 2030, and develop a plan to manage solid waste in the basin of Nhuệ and Đáy rivers. The Ministries of Finance, Planning and Investment were recommended to finance the Program on dealing with heavily-polluting public facilities in 2016-20, give incentives and financial support to infrastructure development projects and private firms. Provinces and cities in the low catchment basin must tighten the state administration of environmental protection, focusing on raising awareness of waste source owners, business and production facilities, and people to protect the environment. They were also required to launch projects at seriously-contaminated sites and see water management as a national security issue.
At the meeting, the Chairman of the Hà Nội People’s Committee received the transfer for the chairmanship of the Environemntal Protection Commission of the Low Catchment Basin of the Nhuệ - Đáy rivers from the Chairman of the Ninh Bình People’s Committee.
On December 6, 2019, the Environmental Protection Commission of the Low Catchment Basin of the Cầu River in Thái Nguyên Province organised its 15th meeting for the term 2019 - 2020.
Among attendees were the Chairman of the Environmental Protection Commission of the Low Catchment Basin of the Cầu River cum Chairman of the Hải Dương People’s Committee Vương Đức Sáng, Deputy Minister of MONRE Võ Tuấn Nhân, Vice Chairman of the Thái Nguyên People’s Committee Lê Quang Tiến, leaders of provincial departments of natural resources and environment, senior managers of provincial people’s committees and representatives of ministries and Government agencies.
In 2019, the Commission worked with provincial people’s committee in the low catchment basin of the Cầu River to check the progress of the Project on the environmental protection for the river’s low catchment basin, inspect the activities of business and production facilities in Phong Khê paper village and Phong Khê Paper Industrial Park, thus raising their awareness about environmental protection. The Commission had also helped ministries, local authorities and Government agencies accomplish facilities and projects worth thousands of billions of dong to deal with solid waste and waste water.
Highly appreciating the efforts of the Commission, Ministries, government agencies and six provinces in the basin region: Bắc Kạn, Thái Nguyên, Bắc Giang, Bắc Ninh, Vĩnh Phúc and Hải Dương, Deputy Minister Võ Tuấn Nhân said there were positive results and the quality of water in the river improved after the Master plan on the environmental protection of the low catchment basin of the Cầu River had been implemented. However, there were still obstacles in the project implementation and Deputy Minister hoped meeting attendees would discuss solutions to help the region achieve higher socio-economic growth in the future.
At the meeting, participants evaluated the results of the Cầu River project 2016-20, addressed problems and proposed solutions to protect the environment of the river’s low catchment basin after the project ends in 2020. Provincial authorities in the basin region needed to make assessment of projects and tasks assigned by the provincial people’s committees and outline a future plan for the region. MONRE would need to co-operate with relevant ministries, government agencies and local authorities to promote inter-region and inter-province projects to resolve environmental issues for the basin, keep checking the quality of water in the river and instruct local authorities to implement policies related to the Law of Environmental Protection. Other Ministries and agencies would need to execute tasks to implement the Master plan on environmental protection of the low catchment basin, evaluate the results of the implementation of 2020 project, and suggest solutions to protect the basin region after the project ends in 2020.
Phạm Tuyên - Hương Trần
(Source: Vietnam Environment Administration Magazine, English Edition III - 2019)
