APFNet helps northern province ensure forest management

The Asia-Pacific Network for Sustainable Forest Management and Rehabilitation (APFNet) is conducting its first project in Vietnam, “Demonstration of Capacity of Sustainable Forest Restoration and Management in Vietnam,” to increase forestry’s contributions to poverty reduction, environmental services and livelihood improvement.

The US $500,000 project will be carried out in the two communes of Thanh Son and Tan Son in the northern province of Phu Tho, where residents are mostly Muong and Dao ethnic people.

At least 50 ha of degraded natural forests there will be restored and managed in a sustainable way.

APFNet General Director Qu Guilin said, the project will help to raise forest coverage in the Asia-Pacific region to 20 million ha by 2020.

Ho Chi Minh City hopes to tackle flood issues

Ho Chi Minh City authorities have asked scientific agencies to conduct supplementary research to help the city deal with flooding issues in a sustainable way.

The proposal was made when many of the city’s big anti-flooding projects totaling are incomplete but deemed to be backwards in more complicated climatic changes.

During early years of the 21st century, Ho Chi Minh City has dealt with rigorous flooding. The city’s water drainage system is designed to serve a 35-square kilometre residentual area of just 1.5 million people. However, the population scale of the 140 square-kilometre central city alone has jumped up to seven million people.

The system is out-of-date, using the technology of 50 years ago, with over 60% of the drains failing to meet with technical standards. Experts say they need to be upgraded or replaced.

The city has received loans from the World Bank to repair the drainage system and tackle the flooding through launching a range of big water drainage projects, including Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe water hygiene project, project for improving water in Tau Hu-Ben Nghe-Doi Te Canal, project for urban environment upgrade, and more.

To date, these projects have not yet been completed. Only 27.5% of work package A under the Tau Hu-Ben Nghe-Doi Te Canal project has been completed. A mere 30% of work on the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe project’s canal dredging item has been finished.

Despite being under construction, experts have raised concerns that these projects will be backwards in progress. For instance, the water environment improvement project is designed to bear a maximum rainfall of 90mm, based on the estimated highest flood level of 1.29 metres on the Saigon River.

However, in recent years, the flood levels in the city have often surpassed 1.40 metres and rainfall has even soared to 90cm. Thus, the project is unlikely to be effective in fighting against flooding.

International scientists forecast that Ho Chi Minh City will be among ten cities in the world suffering the most serious results of global climate change.

The Ho Chi Minh City authorities have proposed that scientific agencies conduct supplementary research to help the city deal with flooding in a sustainable way.

Vietnamese experts and Dutch consultants are outlining flood-prevention plans, combining the four factors of rain, flood tide, flood and ecology into an integrated one which will serve as a foundation for detailed orientations and prioritised investments for the city’s inundation prevention in different periods.

Additionally, scientific organisations have surveyed suitable locations for building water regulating lakes (collecting rain water) in an effort to ease overload for the municipal water drainage system. This work will help the organisations to make a general plan for the construction of the lakes in the city.

Experts have also built maps to assess and manage flood-caused risks for forecasts and warnings at inundation areas. This will support them to make proper investment decisions for flood-sustainable prevention and eradication goals.

At a meeting on submergence prevention in Ho Chi Minh City on October 27, Le Thanh Hai, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, suggested the research to use concrete or uPVC plastic for embanking canals. Ho Chi Minh City is now home to nearly 2,000 kilometres of canals.

Dung Quat contaminates air in central Vietnam

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Many people in the central Vietnam’s Quang Ngai Province felt short of breath this past week due to toxic gases emitted by Dung Quat, the country’s first oil refinery.

Managers from Dung Quat Economic Zone, where the refinery is located, tested three samples of the gas on Monday.

All of them contained unacceptable levels of sulfur dioxide (SO2). One sample registered more than twice the permitted amount.

Le Tran Quang Huy, Head of the Environment and Natural Resources Department at Dung Quat Economic Zone said “the harmful emission will largely affect people’s health.”

Local authorities have concluded that the gas came from the refinery; the refinery's investor, PetroVietnam (a subsidiary of Binh Son Petrochemical Refinery Co.) has admitted as much.

Ngo Van Thinh, a local commune official, said they asked Binh Son Company to stop emitting the gas.

Nguyen Hoai Giang, General Director of Binh Son, said the sulfur treatment plant at the refinery stopped operations last Wednesday to adjust it's catalyst.

Following the changes, the sulfur should be burned off by a torch system every day.

Giang said he couldn't stop the whole refinery as the economic losses would be too great.

He said his engineers are working hard to put the treatment plant back into operation soon. The plant treats sulfur to sell to chemical firms for the production of sulfuric acid.

Inhaling sulfur dioxide is associated with acute respiratory symptoms and disease, difficulty in breathing, and premature death, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

“The gas smelled like oxy-fuel welding (which produces acetylene)," said Nguyen Thanh Nhon, a local resident. "It was so strong that my family experienced difficult breathing for many days. We had to close our nose at meals.”
Nhon lives very close to the refinery, so he’s afraid that his children could develop respiratory ailments.