A male motorcyclist covers his mouth and nose due to traffic smoke on a street in HCMC. The number of automatic environmental monitoring stations will be raised as a way to ensure environmental pollution control in HCMC

At the session on December 9, Council member Nguyen Manh Tri voiced concern over the alleged worsening of pollution in HCMC, proposing the department adopt effective measures to minimize air and water pollution in the coming years.

Member Tran Quang Thang noted that HCMC currently has few air monitoring stations, so it does not release timely warnings of air pollution, Sai Gon Giai Phong news site reported.

Director of the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Toan Thang pointed out that the city has 327 manual environmental monitoring stations, adding that the city has put into service six automatic stations out of a total of 58 stations that are under construction.

Thang said that the lack of automatic monitoring stations has delayed and rendered ineffective the release of pollution parameters and environmental warnings. To address the problem, more automatic monitoring stations will be installed in the coming months.

In late 2020, the city will develop an additional 50 automatic stations to monitor air and water pollution and land subsidence to address the worsening pollution and protect the environment, according to Thang.

Apart from this, emissions from 800,000 automobiles and eight million motorbikes in the city must be controlled urgently, he added.

Regarding the relocation of pollution-causing facilities, Thang stated that the city must still relocate and review 114 polluting facilities.

This year, the municipal department inspected 190 facilities and firms, and 70 of them were found to have violated regulations on the operations of wastewater and exhaust fume control systems.

Some of the firms and facilities did not use the systems they had. The total fines imposed on these violators reached VND15 billion.

As for waste treatment, Thang guaranteed that 50% of household waste will be incinerated for energy generation by 2020.

Vietstar Environmental JSC and Tam Sinh Nghia Investment-Development JSC have started the construction of two waste-to-energy plants with a daily capacity of processing 2,000 tons of waste each. The city will also see work on the third waste-to-energy plant start in the coming months, he said. SGT

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