Many high-risk projects in polluting the environment in Vietnam

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According to figures released by Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha to the National Assembly's deputies, in 2017, through 701 inspections of the observance of legal provisions on environmental protection for 2,565 organizations and individuals (focusing on establishments having large sources of wastewater of 200 m3 per day or more), 33% of the objects have committed violations. Violations mainly focus on the following contents: Failing to perform or improperly implementing the contents of the environmental impact assessment report or the approved environmental protection commitment (accounting for 40% ); no environmental impact assessment report or no environmental protection commitment (21%); violations of hazardous waste management (14%); and discharge of waste exceeding technical standards on waste (13%).

Based on the inspection and examination results, the competent agencies have already sanctioned 700 administrative organizations and individuals with the amount of VND 82 billion and 80 million, with retrospective collection of VND 239 million.

With regard to the task of controlling high-risk projects, establishments and industrial zones, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment confirmed that the monitoring group for waste treatment facilities of Lee & Man Paper Mill Project in Vietnam was established and maintained regularly. Accordingly, the competent agencies organized the inspections of the VNT19 Powder - Paper Factory project in Dung Quat Economic Zone in Quang Ngai Province and Nghe Tinh Metal in Nghe An Province; regularly inspected and supervised the situation of overcoming violations of Hung Nghiep Formosa Steel Company.

However, the leader of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment also acknowledged that high-risk projects polluting the environment still tend to invest in Vietnam, while we still lack the mechanism to check and prevent them from the beginning, leading to high potentiality for environmental pollution incidents.

The prevention and response to environmental incidents in some localities are not tight. In particular, the failure to take measures to handle industrial solid wastes normally leads to large residues of conventional industrial solid waste in industrial production facilities, especially in coal-fired thermal power plants, chemical production and mineral processing.

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"There is a great shortage of industrial solid waste treatment facilities, especially large-scale waste treatment facilities. The treatment of industrial solid waste is only done in small units. In addition, there are a number of industrial production establishments outside industrial clusters and industrial zones that do not have the function of collecting and transporting wastes, leading to the dumping of wastes not at the prescribed places, polluting the environment and affecting people's health", the report specified.