Viet Nam is struggling to find measures to prevent pollution in the country’s rivers from worsening, environmental officials have admitted.
Dr Nguyen The Dong, deputy director of the General Department of Environmental Protection, was speaking at an international conference on the issue organised by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in HCM City last week.
He said Viet Nam needed to listen to and learn from the experience of all countries in the world in dealing with river pollution and adopt suitable solutions.
For example, he cited China and Japan as the two countries that had been successful in improving the basin of several rivers.
Dong added the environment management of river basins was very complex and could not be put into effect immediately. The river basin management requires patience and a lot of time.
The infrastructure needed to address the problem remained weak, as was the planning process, the conference heard.
The awareness among businesses and local inhabitants about protecting the water environment was still low, experts said.
They stressed that the serious polluting of rivers in the country began a long time ago, and Viet Nam needed to take drastic measures urgently to prevent and treat pollution.
However, identifying the measures in accordance with the economic and social conditions of Viet Nam was a very time consuming process, they added.
The General Department of Environment Protection said while waiting to come up with the best solution to save the rivers, local authorities needed to tighten control over heavy water pollution.
Relevant agencies will have to strengthen inspection of companies located in river basins and strictly impose stringent fines on violations.
The Ministry of Planning and Investment would consider and limit the granting of investment licences for five types of industry that risk causing the most serious pollution to rivers – cassava processing, chemical production, dyeing, tanning and pulp production, the department said.
Local authorities needed to work with the Ministry of Construction and other relevant agencies to accelerate the building of the rain water drainage systems. They should be separated from wastewater drainage systems in urban and residential areas, it said.
Viet Nam has established three committees on the environmental protection of the Cau River Basin, Day River Basin and Dong Nai River Basin to co-ordinate with local authorities and speed up treatment of pollution in these areas.
Also on Tuesday, the Department of Water Resources Management under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment held a meeting on the impact of climate change on water resources in Viet Nam.
Nguyen Khac Hieu, deputy director of the hydrometeorology and climate change department under the environment ministry, said that increasing temperatures and evaporation would decrease water volume and quality in river basins.
According to the climate change scenarios sketched by experts, after 2030, the rainfall will have powerful impacts on the water flow of rivers. If the quantity of rainfall were to fall by 10 per cent, river flow volumes would also decrease by 10-30 per cent.
The change is predicted to occur mainly in the northwest and south-central areas.
