Beaches in the central city of Danang have been covered by litter following heavy rains over the past three days.

More than 3,800 plastic waste containers have piled up for more than 90 days at Vietnam’s three major ports of Hai Phong, Vung Tau and HCM City’s Cat Lai, according to the latest report by Vietnam Customs.

Work on a waste-to-energy (WTE) plant, worth US$215 million, began in the outlying district of Cu Chi on October 16 as the second of its kind in HCMC, allowing the city to address both the waste problem and the demand for energy simultaneously.

The HCMC Department of Transport is mulling over a scheme to control emissions from scooters and motorbikes on a trial basis.

Last September recorded the lowest rainfall in the last six years, triggering air pollution and increasing the concentration of PM2.5, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment announced on Monday.

Experts have warned that if there is no solution to deal with the oil spill, the environment will be polluted and the underground water will be affected.

Poor urban development planning and the intentional adjustment of development plans to serve certain interest groups will affect development of physical spaces for many generations.

Authorities have been asked to find the truck that was used to pour engine oil into a spring near Song Da Water plant. The oil spill has been identified as the cause of the foul smell of the tap water used to supply residents of Hanoi.

While some experts have issued a warning against high salinity in the dry season in the 2019-2020 period, a representative of the agriculture sector has remained optimistic.

Pham Hong Luong, director of Cat Tien, said for many years, the board of management of the national park has complained about the infringement of illegal sand exploiters on the Dong Nai River.

Nearly 90 per cent of the country’s urban sewage is discharged untreated directly into waterways, according to a report by the Ministry of Construction.

PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked local authorities in Dak Nong Province to report on an incident in which large amounts of pine forest on lucrative land plots were poisoned.

Hanoi's residents have been advised to be watchful of the applications they use to check the city's air quality.

AirVisual, the air quality monitor and information provider, could not be downloaded from both Android and iOS stores in Vietnam for several days.

It is now the flood season in the Mekong Delta, but people there have already begun to worry about saline intrusion in the upcoming dry season.

The southern province of Hau Giang is battling with waste disposal as existing landfills are overloaded, while its waste treatment project implementation has remained at a standstill.

New cleaning machines are being blamed for Hanoi's air pollution after the local authorities stopped watering the streets three years ago.

Nearly a decade ago, Vietnam lost its last rhino. Since then, the country has made great efforts to combat wildlife trafficking and protect biodiversity. 

The AirVisual app, whose data indicated that Hanoi has at times topped its list of 90 major global cities suffering from air pollution, has been restored for download on Google Play and Apple’s App Store in Vietnam.

The fact that air pollution alerts in HCMC are not timely made available is attributable to the Center for Environment and Natural Resources Monitoring’s use of outdated environmental monitoring devices, said Cao Tung Son, director of the center.