Deserving punishments and effective environmental police

I have learnt from the local press that one of the reasons for industrial polluters to maintain their polluting production over the years is a lack of com­prehensive legal systems to handle violations and effective implementa­tion of such systems. Punishments, if any, are often too light to prevent individuals and organizations from violating environmental regulations or to deter violators from committing them again.

Almost two years ago, the envi­ronmental police was established. But this force should be given more power and support so that they can successfully fulfill their duty to safe­guard Vietnam's environment. I think even Vietnamese have known little about this environmental task force, for instance how strong its contingent is or where its officers are based.