The seriously polluted environment surrounding 47 trade villages nation-wide is set to be gradually removed under the National Target Programme on Environmental Pollution Improvement during 2012-15.
The programme, worth VND5.8 trillion (US$281 million), has been approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. The country now has about 4,500 trade villages, including 1,300 traditional ones,, which provide jobs for 11 million rural labourers.
Ho Kien Trung, head of the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry's Environment Improvement Office, said that a set of criteria to identify levels of environmental pollution in trade villages would soon be announced.
Under the criteria, a list of trade villages suffering from a seriously polluted environment would be made annually, he said.
A recent survey by Ha Noi University of Science and Technology's Environmental Sciences and Technology Institute showed that not a single sample of wastewater from the 47 trade villages met basic sanitary standards.
According to the survey, a metal-recycling trade village including 123 producers, located in northern Bac Ninh Province's Chau Khe Ward, has been operating without a wastewater treatment system.
They also failed to show reports on environmental impact assessment and commitments to environmental protection.
To return to the national target programme, the environment surrounding 100 areas that were seriously polluted due to pesticides will be improved.
In addition, projects to collect and treat waste discharged from type-2 urban areas into the Cau, Dong Nai and Nhue-Day Rivers will soon be implemented.
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