Finland funds climate change mitigation project in Quang Tri

More than EUR153,000 will be spent on the second phase of a project to mitigate the impact of climate change on agricultural production in sandy areas of Quang Tri province.

This figure was announced at a ceremony on July 31 to launch the second phase to be implemented in Hai Que, Trieu Van and Trieu Giang communes from July 2012 to June 2014. The first phase of the project was implemented from 2009 to 2011.

The Finish-funded project aims to identify new agricultural products to develop for sandy areas, expand existing effective models, research production methods that can be adapted to a changing climate, and develop marketing and production strategies that are suitable for sandy areas.

It will also help raise local people’s awareness of changing production models, as well as choosing appropriate plants and livestock, and creating effective agricultural strategies for sandy areas, so they will be able to increase their incomes and minimize the impact of climate change.

Quang Tri is one of the coastal provinces in Vietnam that is most seriously affected by climate change.

Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal to return to its old glory

Workers are rushing to complete the environmental project to clean the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal, so as to open up Hoang Sa and Truong Sa Streets along the canal for traffic by August.

The lines of trees and rows of ornamental plants have already begun to green the streets, which once were filled with garbage and unwanted litter, giving off a foul stench.

Nguyen Ba Trao, living in Mieu Noi apartment block, said that 50 years ago the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal was crystal clear with blue waters and he used to go fishing there every day as a young boy of 25.

However, later so many poor people came to inhabit the area and built temporary houses and all waste from their homes flowed directly into the canal which eventually became heavily polluted with black grimy wastewater that was perpetually stinking.

From 1993-1998, Ho Chi Minh City cleared away thousands of low-roofed temporary house structures and made way for roads alongside the canal.

The environmental project to clean the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal kicked off in 2003 at a total investment of US$317 million, of which $294 million was loaned from the World Bank.

The project cost included equipment to dredge the canal, install a drainage system along the canal, upgrade Hoang Sa and Truong Sa Streets, making them among the most beautiful streets in HCMC.

Ngo Ba An, deputy director of the Urban Traffic Management Department No.1, said that execution units are rushing to complete last minute items to officially open the two streets for traffic in August.

The roads have been broadened from few meters to 16 meters to enhance the beauty of Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal and reduce traffic jams in the area.

Phan Chau Thuan, director of the project's management board, said that all the wastewater from the area will not now flow into the canal any more but into an 8.9 kilometer drainage pipe leading to the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe pumping station, which will siphon wastewater from garbage, before releasing it into the Saigon River.

Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe will receive only rainwater and river water and is expected to become clear again after one year, he said.
The pumping station will begin to function at 10 Nguyen Huu Canh in Binh Thanh District by August, and receive wastewater of 1.2 million residents in Districts 1, 3, 10, Phu Nhuan, Binh Thanh, Tan Binh and Go Vap.

Wastewater will flow into box drains along a stretch of 70 kilometers that have been installed along 69 roads in the above districts during the years 2005 to July 2012.

The box drains will connect with the 8.9 kilometer drain of diameter three meters, along the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Canal to run into the pumping station.

In the second phase of the project, a wastewater treatment plant will be built in District 2.

Conference discusses energy efficiency in East Asia

Some 200 policy makers, scholars, development partners, and private sector representatives from ASEAN and the East Asian region gathered in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on July 31 to discuss and share experience on efficient energy development in East Asia.

Speaking at the opening of the 2nd East Asia Summit Energy Efficiency Conference, Cambodian Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy Suy Sem, said that energy development is the most important priority for a country as it remains the key for economic development in all domains.

Executive Director of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA) Hidetoshi Nishimura said the conference would provide an overview of the development of efficient energy products and best practice in improving the energy efficiency.

He added that the outcome of the conference will be reported to the 6th East Asia Summit Energy Ministers Meeting in Phnom Penh this September.

The First East Asia Summit - Energy Efficiency Conference was held in Laos in last August.

HCM City plans for temporary parking

The municipal Transport Department has submitted to the People's Committee a draft plan to use 119 streets in the city as temporary parking spaces.

The draft was prepared after all streets had been cleaned up under a request from the Government and the National Transport Safety Committee.

The department said demand for parking space is huge in the nation's largest city, but underground or above-the-ground parking facilities are still on paper.

Downtown HCM City has a lot of office buildings, hotels and restaurants, but most of them have very small parking spaces, it noted.

According to statistics from the Construction Department, only 14 out of 79 downtown high-rise buildings have enough space for parking. Fifty-nine others have smaller spaces and six have no parking space at all.

Nowadays, it is very hard to find parking space for motorbikes, despite the price is very high, often VND10,000, three times higher than usual.

Residents of many apartments in the city are also suffering, especially those that were built several decades ago without any parking space.

Along with the old apartments built before 1975, many others constructed recently lack parking space as well.

In District 5, there are a whopping 247 apartments without parking lot.

Residents of such apartments have to arrange for their motorbikes to be guarded for payment of monthly fees. Such arrangements come with several inconveniences, including limited time periods during which the motorbike can be left or collected.

Truck strikes bus stop, leaving one dead

A 55-year-old woman died and four others were critically injured early yesterday after a container truck hit a bus stop on National Road 5 in the northern province of Hai Duong.

Photo: Oto fun

The five people were waiting for a bus when the truck driver, a 29-year-old from the northern Thai Binh Province, lost control and ran into them.

Three of the injured came from one family.

Frenchman robs $150 camera in HCMC, sentenced

A court in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday sentenced a French tourist, who holds a master degree from a UK university, to 5 months and 24 days in prison for robbing a US$150 camera in downtown city.

According to the indictment, Olivier Le Roux, 27, who has a degree in tourism, traveled to Vietnam in early February for a holiday because he was frustrated about not being able to find a job in his hometown.

When he arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, he had his camera robbed.

Olivier Le Roux told the court that he came up with the idea to steal a camera because he was angry at being robbed.

At about 10am on February 6, Olivier Le Roux went to a camera shop on Tran Hung Dao Street in District 1’s Pham Ngu Lao Ward (near the backpacker’s quarter) to ask to purchase a camera.

The shop owner offered him a secondhand model at a price of US$150 but the Frenchman asked him to exchange the US dollars into the Vietnam dong (VND).

When the owner was calculating, the foreigner snatched the camera and ran fast.

After hearing “robber, robber” shouted by the owner, the city’s mobile police forces, who were patrolling at that time, chased after the tourist and arrested him at the September 23rd Park.

At the court on July 30, Olivier Le Roux pleaded guilty.

Because the time he had spent in custody is as same as the jail term, he was set free after the trial ended.

Cities told to crack down on medical advertising

The Ministry of Health has asked Ha Noi and HCM City to strengthen the management of advertising for medical services in the two cities.

Municipal authorities should ensure local private clinics only advertise services they were licensed to carry out, a document released by the ministry said.

Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien said that recently, several private clinics were found to have violated laws by operating without permits and overcharging.

Ba Ria-Vung Tau judge indicted for taking bribe

The Supreme People’s Procuracy on Monday prosecuted a judge in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province for demanding a bribe of US$3,360 from the plaintiff in a case, and had received part of the amount.

Judge Le Thi My Loc, 37, of the Chau Duc District People’s Court, has been found to receive VND30 million ($1,440), a part of the amount she demanded from a local woman, Nguyen Thi Lien, who was the plaintiff in a case that had been tried by the court.

According to the prosecutor’s office, in 2010 Lien filed a complaint to the court against a couple, Huynh Thi Ba and her husband Dang Nhan, claiming an amount of VND470 million (US$22,500).

Loc suggested that Lien pay her VND70 million ($3,360) if Lien wanted the lawsuit to be settled quickly.

Lien agreed, and according to their agreement she would pay the judge VND30 million in advance, and would pay the remainder when Lien received the full amount she had claimed from the couple.

Loc then made a document of reconcilement by herself and asked the defendants first, and then the plaintiff, to sign and finalize the dispute.

However, in January 2011, the local verdict execution office handed Lien only VND147 million, after which Lien accused Loc of taking a bribe.

Given that Loc actively asked Lien for the bribe and Lien reported the bribery to the authorities before it was discovered, the Supreme People’s Procuracy decided not to charge Lien with giving a bribe.

On April 23, 2012, the chief judge of the provincial People’s Court suspended Loc for two months for investigation, before which the Party Committee of the Chau Duc District People’s Court had given her a warning.

Substandard arthritis medicine pulled from shelves

The Ha Noi Department of Health has suspended an antiphlogistic, which is often used for arthritis, from circulation for substandard quality.

Diclofenac, which was manufactured by the Mediplantex National Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company, did not dissolve in accordance with regulations, according to the department.

The director of Mediplantex has been instructed to submit a report on the progress of the product's withdrawal from shelves by August 9.

Chinese traditional clinic closed for violations

A traditional Chinese medicine clinic in Hai Phong City has been forced to close while another was fined VND20 million (US$950) after violations were found by municipal health inspectors.

The city's Health Department withdrew the business licence from a clinic on Tran Nguyen Han Street and fined the owner VND30 million ($1,400) for providing services beyond which the licence permitted and using illegal medicine.

The other clinic on Nguyen Duc Canh Street was fined for overcharging and prescribing unauthorised drugs.

Southern province builds new markets

Ten new fresh food markets have been built in the south-eastern province of Dong Nai since 2011, and 12 others will be opened by the end of next year to improve food safety.

The total funding is US$1.1 million, which came from the national Livestock Competitiveness and Food Safety Project (LIFSAP) implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development with financial support from the World Bank.

In a meeting between the provincial People's Committee and the project management held yesterday, July 31, participants claimed that the markets have attracted a large number of customers.

HSBC donates nearly US$150,000 to disadvantaged children

The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) Vietnam on July 31 presented US$148,500 to projects being implemented by three SOS villages and three non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Vietnam.

The funds come from the bank’s Future First Program, which provides street children and orphans with opportunities to access education and vocational training.

Since 2007, Future First has funded 26 projects worth more than US$693,100, and benefited more than 53,400 Vietnamese children.

HSBC Vietnam General Director Sumit Dutta said by coordinating with NGOs in the country the bank’s funds will be used effectively to meet the community’s needs and help disadvantaged children.

Tran Thi Ngoc Dung, a representative from an SOS village in Vietnam, said the US$80,000 donation will be used to provide 752 children at SOS villages with the chance to go to school and offer them essential services for their development. It will also go toward helping train disadvantaged youths at SOS workshops.

A representative of the Phu Sa project in Dong Thap province, Le Thi Ngoc Tho, said the US$32,000 project will pay for school fees and learning facilities for 200 pupils, teach 120 children how to swim and educate 197 others in life skills.

Four workers killed after wall collapses

Four workers were killed yesterday and another injured after a whirlwind reportedly tore down a six metre high wall and buried them.

The accident occurred on a construction site in the Vsip1 Industrial Zone in the province's Thuan An District.

According to witnesses, the men were working on the wall at the time.

Leader of Labour Confederation visits Australia

A high ranking delegation from the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL) led by its president Dang Ngoc Tung is paying an official visit to Australia from July 30 to August 5.

According to the VGCL’s newspaper, the Lao Dong daily, Tung held talks with President of the Australian Council of Trade Union (ACTU) Ged Kearney in Melbourne on July 30.

The two trade union leaders briefed each other on their activities and discussed measures to further promote the traditional friendship and cooperation between the two sides, thus contributing to the Vietnam-Australia comprehensive partnership.

The ACTU is the only national-scale trade union organisation in Australia and it is established in 1927.

Boy survives encounter with poisonous snake

The Ha Noi-based Bach Mai Hospital has successfully cured a boy after he had a narrow escape from death after playing with a poisonous snake.

Pham Tuan Anh, 11, was hospitalised on July 22 suffering from serious convulsions and shallow breathing.

No proof wanted marine chief paid to hide: police

The police have not obtained any evidence that the former Vietnam Maritime Administration director had paid bribes to know in advance about his looming arrest in May, head of the Criminal Police Department said.

Lieutenant General Phan Van Vinh made the statement at an online meeting held by the Cong An Nhan Dan newspaper last week, when he mentioned the escape of Duong Chi Dung before his arrest warrant was announced on May 18.

Dung, 55, a native of Hai Duong Province, has been charged with “intentionally acting against the State’s economic management regulations and causing serious consequences” for his wrongdoings committed during the time he was chairman of the infamous state giant Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) from 2005 to early 2012.

If found guilty, Dung may be sentenced to life in prison. Dung has been wanted internationally since his disappearance.

In a different interview, Colonel Tran Duy Thanh, head of the Corruption Investigation Police Department, said, “There has not been information about Dung’s motive in his fleeing away. There has not been evidence that the arrest warrant was leaked to him, either. These issues will be clarified when Dung is arrested.”

As previously reported, the investigation into corruption at Vinalines was expanded on July 25 with the arrest of six more officials, who allegedly helped buy a faulty Russian floating dock that lost the state US$23 million.

All six face the same charge as that of Dung, who ordered the purchase of the used dock under a project that had not been approved by the Prime Minister.

More than ten other officials have been arrested already in the Vinalines scandal.

Seminar on advanced technology to defeat Agent Orange

A seminar on use of In-Pile Thermal Desorption (IPTD) technology to clean up dioxin contamination at Da Nang Airport was held by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), in Hanoi on July 31.

Ralphs Baker, Director of Dioxin/Agent Orange (AO) treatment project at the airport affirmed that the advanced technology is considered the most suitable method for the site, given the local environmental impact and safety of those working on or near the site.

The US$43 million project, jointly carried out by the USAID and the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defence, is expected to launch late this summer and finish in 2015.

Upon completion, it will reclaim 29 hectares of clean land for economic and commercial purposes, eliminating the dioxin contamination risk in all the affected areas.

Representative of the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defence stressed the importance of dealing with AO consequences in the region and in other hot spots around the country, such as Bien Hoa Airport in southern Dong Nai province and Phu Cat Airport in southern central Binh Dinh Province.

The IPTD system has been applied in the US, EU and Asia to clean up contaminated sites and ensure a safe environment for millions of people.

VNN/VOV/VNS/Tuoi Tre