VietNamNet Bridge – Plant protection chemicals have been killing the agriculture production, while industrial gains have been paid by the polluted land, water, air and human diseases.

Dr. Hoang Duong Tung, Deputy Director General of the Environment Directorate under the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MONRE), in an interview given to the local press, expressed his worry that local authorities have been sacrificing the environment for economic development.

He noted that the great efforts by the ministry and the community to protect the environment would be in vain if local authorities determine the local economic development as the top priority.

Vietnam has to pay a heavy price for the economic growth. A lot of areas have got seriously polluted. The forests have been destroyed. The biodiversity has been degrading. The river water has got polluted. The air in urban areas has got problematic. Meanwhile, big problems still exist in the solid waste treatment.

“The environment panorama shows more dark and bright parts,” he noted.

According to Tung, Vietnam needs to prioritize to settle some environment problems in the immediate time.

First, it is necessary to take actions to upgrade the quality of rivers by controlling the waste water from the industrial zones, craft villages, urban areas. Also, it is necessary to reconsider the hydropower plant development program, because hydropower plants have made a lot of rivers exhausted.

Currently, solid waste has not been classified properly and has not been collected in a right way. A lot of unsanitary landfills have been set up spontaneously, thus affecting the urban landscapes and polluting the underground water. Therefore, the second priority task is to deal with the problems.

Third, Vietnam needs to gather strength to settle the air pollution, especially in big urban areas, where the dust concentration is very high, and in rural areas, where small-scaled industrial workshops produce smoke and harm local people’s health.

MONRE, when implementing the 2012-2015 national program on the pollution settlement and environment improvement, has found the “hot spots” that need to be dealt with first.

These include the 47 seriously polluted craft villages and 100 areas seriously affected by the plant protection chemical residues. The program costs VND2.5 trillion.

However, Tung admitted that it is very difficult to settle the problems of the 4,500 craft villages nationwide.

The “craft village” issue becomes so burning that the National Assembly has to set up a specific program on dealing with craft villages, release the resolution on craft villages. The Prime Minister has set up a plan on the environment protection in craft villages. Meanwhile, MONRE has been taking continuous inspection tours to the villages to discover the violations.

The existence of a high number of plant protection chemical barrels reported by local newspapers recently has stirred up the public. More than 1,000 places polluted with plant protection chemicals in 39 cities and provinces have been found, a surprisingly high figure.

A part of the chemicals have existed in the barrels stored for the last many years – the time long enough for the chemicals to be absorbed into the earth. The other part of chemicals has been spread out by farmers who have been abusing pesticide in agriculture production.

Dan Viet