16/08/2017
In recent years, socio-economic development activities in river basins have taken place dynamically, which contribute to the overall development of Việt Nam. However, this development has caused many negative impacts on the environment, including the water environment in river basins. Currently, the water environment in river basins is degrading in many areas, particularly in sections flowing through urban areas, industrial zones, craft villages and downstream areas.
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Youths in Tân An ward (Quảng Ninh province) participated in cleaning Bến Giang river area |
Therefore, the management of river basin water environment has been paid attention by the Việt Nam’s Party and the State, with timely promulgation of regulations on environmental protection in general and policies to support and promote environmental protection of the river basin water in particular, such as the Law on Environmental Protection (LEP) 2014, Decree No. 19/2015/ND-CP regulating some articles of the LEP, Decision No. 166/QD-TTg promulgating the National Strategy on environmental protection to 2020, vision to 2030, Decision No. 1206/QD-TTg approving the National Target Program on pollution mitigation and environmental improvement in the period 2012 - 2015, Decision No. 129/2009/QD-TTg approving the Scheme "Mechanism and policy to promote investments in environmental protection", Circular No. 212/2015/TT-BTC guiding enterprise income tax policy on environmental protection based on Decree No. 19/2015/ND-CP…
For environmental protection and pollution mitigation of manufacturing and commercial activities, the State provides a proportion of financial support for enterprises operating in river basins, specifically in Clause C, Part 1, Decision No. 174/QD-TTg regulating: "Enterprises operating in river basins have to protect the environment and to mitigate environmental pollution from the manufacturing and commercial processes. The State provides a proportion of financial support to implement these tasks in the form of targeted support for each task, each project"; Clause C, Part 2, Decision No. 197/2008/QD-TTg regulates: "Enterprises, industrial zones, processing zones, and high technology zones operating in the Đồng Nai river system must implement waste treatment before discharging and emitting to the environment or implement pollution treatment as regulated".
Projects on construction of environmental protection infrastructure of industrial zones, industrial units and craft villages in river basins receive supports on infrastructure construction investment according to Article 39, Decree No. 19/2015/ND-CP. Accordingly, the State prioritises to allocate land associated with available works, technical infrastructure items (transport road, electricity, water sewage, communication information, energy) outside the project area connected with the overall technical infrastructure of the region. If the State is unable to allocate the land, the project investor receives support to invest in constructing the infrastructure outside the border of the industrial zone, processing zone, high technology zone according to investment regulations.
Serious environmental polluters located in river basins which are in the removal list receives concession policies on land according to Article 41, Decree No. /2015/ND-CP. Particularly, investment projects in the priority list of the Cầu river basin Environmental Protection Scheme; Đồng Nai river basin Environmental Protection Scheme; Nhuệ - Đáy river basin Environmental Protection Scheme are prioritised to get loans from the Việt Nam Environmental Protection Fund and other credit funds.
On the other hand, the State also encourages organizations and individuals to establish environmental protection service enterprises in the fields of waste collection, recycling and treatment; environmental monitoring and analysis, environmental impact assessment; development and transfer of environmental friendly manufacturing technologies, environmental technologies; consultancy, training and provision of information on environment; environmental inspection of machines, equipment, technologies; evaluation of environmental damages and other services on environmental protection. In addition, the State creates favourable conditions for organizations, individuals and social communities to participate in management, protection and sustainable development of water resources in river basins and prevention of impacts caused by water (Clause 3, Article 7, Decree No. 120/2008/ND-CP).
In other words, policies on promoting and supporting environmental protection of river basin water have been gradually formulated and developed in accordance with the integrated river basin water resources management strategy that Việt Nam is implementing. Promoting and supporting policies have adequately covered areas including supporting and promoting policies on capitals, land, infrastructure... for manufacturing organizations and enterprises; promoting and supporting social organizations and communities to participate in environmental protection of the river basin water. Consequently, organizations, individuals and enterprises have motivations for responsible participation in environmental protection of the river basin water. Currently, some localities have implemented the model of community based environmental protection and achieved positive outcomes, specifically such as the model of environmental protection commitment, self-management of environmental pollution treatment, integration of poverty reduction with environmental protection, environmental sanitation... Of which, socio-political organizations (Women’ Union, Farmers’ Union, Youth Union...) play important roles in environmental protection.
However, during the implementation, there are some shortcomings and difficulties such as lack of specific guidance on special mechanism; it takes a long time for projects to get approval from the authorities; policies promoting local communities to participate in environmental protection of the river basin have not closely linked to practical benefits of communities and have not attracted adequate participation of local people in environmental protection of the river basin water.
To better enhance the implementation of policies on promoting and supporting participation in environmental protection of the river basin water, Ministries: Finance, Planning and Investment, Natural Resources and Environment need to have specific guidance on the nomination of projects in order to implement the National Target Program on pollution mitigation and environmental improvement, particularly priority mechanism for technical infrastructure investment projects; the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment needs to collaborate with other relevant Ministries and sectors to provide guidance on the implementation of promoting and supporting policies to create conditions for enterprises to access to concession loans for river basin water pollution treatment. Furthermore, localities located in the river basin system needs to promote the participation of local communities in environmental protection of the river basin water, to renew communication contents and formats, to develop models on promoting and supporting communities to participate in environmental protection….
Hàn Trần Việt - Trần Bích Hồng
Institute of Environmental Science
Vietnam Environment Administration
