02/04/2016
Nhue - Day River Basin plays an important role in socioeconomic development of the country, in particular of Red River Delta. Nhue - Day River Basin has an area of 7,665 km2, accounting for 10% of the whole Red River Basin. It covers five provinces/cities of Hoa Binh, Ha Noi, Ha Nam, Nam Dinh and Ninh Binh. In recent years, socioeconomic development activities in Nhue - Day River Basin have been taking place rapidly, bringing about considerable economic results, contributing to increasing people living standards and creating numerous jobs. However, economic development has also been associated with pollution, in particular increasing water pollution, reducing water flows and creating negative impact on human health. To address this problem, on 29 April 2008, Prime Minister approved “Master Plan for Environmental Protection of Nhue - Day River Basin by 2020” at Decision 57/2008/QD-TTg (herein after referred to as Master Plan) to streamline environmental protection into socioeconomic objectives of Nhue - Day River Basin.
1. Water River quality in Nhue - Day river basin in 2014
Water quality of Nhue River: In upstream areas (intersection point with Hong River), water remains fairly clean. From South Tu Liem point to To Lich point, water is beeing polluted. BOD5 and COD parameters exceed QCVN 08:2008/BTNMT type A1 for multiple times. Coliform and N-NH4 exceed QCVN 08:2008/BTNMT type B1. The main pollution cause is untreated domestic wastewater from North and South Tu Liem Districts and Ha Dong District, and industrial wastewater from production facilities, Tu Liem industrial cluster and Phu Do craft village.
After receiving wastewater from To Lich River, Nhue River water becomes quite polluted. It can be noted that wastewater discharged into To Lich River (the main wastewater receiving body of downtown districts of Ha Noi) is the main cause of Nhue River pollution (especially from Cau To point downward).
From the To Lich receiving point to downstream point where Nhue River interacts with Day River, water pollution in Nhue River tends to decrease, due to its self cleaning capacity and a measure of bumping water of To Lich River into Red River via Yen So lagoon systems.
Water quality trend in Day River: Water in Day River starts to have organic pollution. COD parameters have exceeded QCVN 08:2008/BTNMT type A1. In most of monitoring stations, N-NH4 and Coliform exceed QCVN 08:2008/BTNMT type B1. In downstream areas, water pollution tends to decrease. In Phu Ly (Ha Nam) area, the pollution remains in some parts of the river at different levels.
Downstream of Day River (from Kim Son - Ninh Binh to Day estuary): Because the water in this part has been diluted and cleaned due to self cleaning capacity of the river, the river water quality is better than in other parts. In monitoring points of Gian Khau, Do Muoi and Cua Day, TSS exceeds QCVN 08:2008/BTNMT type B1.
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| Figure 1. COD trend in Nhue River | Figure 2. BOD5 trend in Nhue River |
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| Figure 3. COD trend in Day River | Figure 4. BOD5 trend in Day River Source: VEA |
2. Results of implementing master plan for environmental protection in Nhue - Day river period 2013 - 2014
To provide a legal framework for implementing the master plan, some regulations have been developed and submitted to Prime Minister and competent authorities for approval. These include a regulation on environmental information and database sharing mechanism in Nhue - Day River Basin in a portal webpage in Decision 02/QD-UBSND dated 5/3/2013; a target program on pollution remediation and environmental promotion period 2012 - 2015 in Decision 1206/QD-TTg; and an implementation plan for the master plan by 2020 in Decision 1435/QD-TTg dated 18/8/2014. In the meantime, in provinces and cities within the river basin, 34 legal documents on mechanisms, policies and directions have been issued to provide directions for environmental protection in general and environmental protection in Nhue - Day River Basin in particular.
Law on Environmental Protection (LEP) 2014 was approved by the National Assembly on 23 June 2014. In addition, draft Decree on waste and scarp management highlights the importance of the task of environmental protection of river water and water river pollution prevention and control. It also stipulates that water discharge shall comply with carrying capacity of the receiving water body and discharge permits; and that all water discharging sources shall be investigated. Responsibilities of competent authorities related to water environment protection in river basins provide solid foundation for success of the master plan for environmental protection in Nhue - Day River Basin.
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| The 6th meeting of the 2nd term of Nhue - Day River Basin Environmental Protection Commission in Ha Nam in November, 2014 |
In addition, Nhue - Day River Basin Environmental Protection Commission has supervised the implementation of the master plan and surveyed Ngoc Hoi Industrial Cluster (Ha Noi), An Thinh Real Estate and Minh Duc Production and Trade Private company (Hoa Binh), Ninh Binh Fertilizer One Member Limited Company and Thanh Nam Wastewater Treatment Plant (Ninh Binh), Dong Van 2 Industrial Zone and Mavin Company (Ha Nam), and Hoa Xa Industrial Park (Nam Dinh).
In the period 2013 - 2014, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) focused on inspection and supervision in 68 production, trade and service facilities discharging into Nhue - Day River Basin with the total fine of over 6.7 billion VND. In particular, Department of Environmental Police, Ministry of Public Security detected and investigated many violations in Nhue - Day River Basin, of which 91 violation cases were fined for up to 2.5 million VND in total.
Localities in the river basin have completed the treatment of 38 of 43 seriously polluting facilities as regulated in Decision 64/2003/QD-TTg. In particular, Ha Noi has finished the treatment of the seriously polluting facilities in its territor
Regarding inter-regional tasks and projects, MONRE has directed VEA to implement the project “Environmental zoning for managing and improving water quality in Nhue - Day River”. MONRE has worked with Ha Noi Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DONRE) to develop two automatic surface water monitoring stations in Nhue - Day at the site of Cau To, Ta Thanh Oai and Phung Chau, Chuong My (Ha Noi). These 2 stations are in a pilot phase. A demonstration project of a wastewater treatment plant for Nhue River with a capacity of 400 m3/day in Phu Ha, Phu Thu, South Tu Liem is in a construction phase. In the meantime, under the national target program on pollution remediation and environmental promotion period 2012 - 2015, considerable resources have been allocated for addressing hot spots in Ha Nam, Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh with the total budget in 2014 of 58.4 billion VND.
Table 1. Results of dealing with seriously polluting facilities in provinces and cities in Nhue - Day River Basin by 2014
|
Province/City |
UNDER Decision 64/2003/QD-TTg |
under decision 1788 |
new serious polluters |
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|
Number of facilities handled |
Total |
Number of facilities handled |
Total |
Number of facilities handled |
Total |
|
|
Hoa Binh |
1 |
2 |
|
|
|
25 |
|
Ha Noi |
23 |
23 |
0 |
3 |
|
3 |
|
Ha Nam |
2 |
4 |
2 |
7 |
|
|
|
Nam Dinh |
4 |
6 |
15 |
16 |
|
|
|
Ninh Binh |
8 |
8 |
1 |
2 |
|
3 |
In addition, Ministry of Construction has developed planning for drainage and wastewater treatment for residential areas and industrial zones in Nhue - Day River Basin by 2030. This planning was approved by Prime Minister in Decision 681/QĐ-TTg dated on 3/5/2013. Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has worked with the provinces in Nhue - Day River to implement reforestation and protection, contract for forest protection of 117,808 ha, develop Ngoai Do 2 pumping station to ease flooding for 9,000 ha, implement Tich River water receiving project, and conduct draining project of Day River and develop Yen Nghia pumping station period 1.
On the other hand, the provinces and cities in Nhue - Day River have implemented over 100 environmental protection projects, infrastructure works and management models such as: reforestation in upstream areas in Hoa Binh Province, environmental remediation in craft villages in Ha Nam, Ninh Binh and Ha Noi, hospital waste treatment in Nhue - Day River Basin, solidwaste treatment using modern technology in Ha Noi, encouraging households to use microbiological products for domestic wastewater pretreatment, and establishing corridors for protecting irrigation works in Nhue River in Ha Noi to better manage land, dykes and construction works and to prevent river bank invasion. These are indeed considerable progress in protecting the water environment of the river basin.
Pollution source inventories in Nhue - Day River Basin have been implemented at both central and local levels in 2013 - 2014.
Table 2. Allocation of state budget for environmental expenditure for provinces/cities in Nhue - Day River Basin period 2013 - 2014
Unit: million VND
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No |
Locality |
Year 2013 |
Year 2014 |
Earmarked Central Budget for supporting localities |
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|
Amount allocated by Ministry of Finance |
Amount allocated by People’s Council |
Amount allocated by Ministry of Finance |
Amount allocated by People’s Council |
Year 2013 |
Year 2014 |
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|
1 |
Ha Noi |
1,255,940 |
2,231,280 |
1,127,550 |
1,808,988 |
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|
|
2 |
Ha Nam |
46,150 |
48,301 |
46,150 |
49,483 |
24,784 |
10,000 |
|
3 |
Nam Đinh |
134,000 |
134,000 |
135,340 |
135,340 |
29,131 |
1,000 |
|
4 |
Hoa Binh |
35,780 |
|
36,140 |
59,524 |
|
4,000 |
|
5 |
Ninh Binh |
48,400 |
73,645 |
48,400 |
80,856 |
|
2,500 |
|
|
Total |
1,520,270 |
2,487,226 |
1,393,580 |
2,134,191 |
53,915 |
17,500 |
At a central level: within a framework of the project “Developing environmental database and information systems of Nhue - Day River Basin”, VEA was working with localities to update inventories of discharging sources in the river basin. According to the survey, by November 2014, the estimated number of discharging sources was 1,942, of which 1,639 were from production and trade facilities, 28 from industrial zones and clusters, 132 from hospitals and 143 from craft villages.
In Ha Nam: Updated discharging source inventories showed 23 units with a total water discharge volume of 3,789.2 m3/day.
In Hoa Binh: Project “Survey and evaluating environmental state of Nhue - Day River in Hoa Binh, developing environmental protection action plan for 2012 - 2020” was conducted. There were up to 56/150 facilities with total discharge volume of about 2,500 m3/day.
In Nam Dinh: A discharging source inventory was conducted for the whole province.
In Ninh Binh: The total discharge industrial wastewater volume in four industrial zones was 10,150 m3/day. Domestic wastewater discharge is 58,540 m3 per day (21,367,100 m3/year). Medical wastewater of 577,612 m3/year is fairly well treated.
In Ha Noi: Waste discharging source inventories have been conducted in Nhue - Day Rivers.
In general, inventories of pollution sources to Nhue and Day Rivers have been implemented. However, this is not on an annual basis, mainly due to limited state budgets. In addition, methodology for inventories and database development varies from province to province, creating difficulties in establishing a comprehensive inventory for the whole river basin.
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| Supervision team inspected An Thinh Company, Hoa Binh |
3. Implementation plan for master plan for environmental protection in Nhue - Day river basin period 2015 - 2016
In the 3rd term, period 2015 - 2016, Environmental Protection for Nhue - Day River Basin Commission and ministries, sectors and People’s Committees of provinces and cities in the river basin shall focus on taking the following measures.
At a central level
MONRE: Establish Sub-department of Environmental Protection for Nhue - Day River Basin in compliance with Prime Minister’s Decision 25/2014/QD-TTg, develop plans for managing and treating waste in Nhue - Day River Basins, and promote and supervise the compliance of regulations on environmental information and database sharing and management in a webpage portal by Decision 02/QD-UBSND.
Ministry of Construction: Direct the implementation of a master plan for drainage and municipal and industrial wastewater treatment in Nhue - Day River Basin by 2030 at regulated in Decision 681/QD-TTg dated 3/5/2013, and speed up the submission to Prime Minister for approving a master plan for solid waste treatment for localities in Nhue - Day River Basin by 2030.
Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Planning and Investment: Provide detailed financial guidance and develop mechanism for giving priorities to technical infrastructure investment projects, and issue policies to facilitate enterprises to access soft loans for waste treatment.
Ministry of Industry and Trade: Continue issuing regulations and policies for supporting enterprises in applying ISO 14001 to achieve objectives of the master plan.
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development: Coordinate with People’s Committees of Provinces and Cities in the river basin to develop investment projects as regulated in Decision 937/QD-TTg dated 1/1/2009 on planning for water draining for Nhue River.
Ministry of Science and Technology: Introduce environmental technology which is suitable with Vietnamese conditions, including domestic and imported technologies for solidwaste and wastewater treatment.
At a local level
People’s Committee of Provinces and Cities: Direct the review of progress and results of programs and projects which have been approved by provinces/cities to implement the master plan for environmental protection in Nhue - Day River Basin and propose new programs/projects; identify and prioritize the treatment of serious polluters; review and update pollution source inventories; and develop a list of environmental hot spots.
Nguyen Thuong Hien, Deputy Director
Tran Thi Le Anh, Nguyen Thai Quang
Office of Nhue Day River Basin’s Environmental Protection Commission, Vietnam Environment Administration
