The Hanoi Party Committee has promulgated a resolution to enhance environmental protection to 2020 and the coming years.
The Capital will focus on protection and sustainable use of water resources, effective management of discharge sources and cleaning contaminated rivers and lakes.
From now to 2020, Hanoi aims to completely treat waste from polluted lakes in the city and provide clean water for all rural people. Waste treatment systems will be installed in industrial parks and clusters, hospitals and medical centres and craft villages.
The City requested all construction sites to take measures to reduce dust and air pollution. Mineral processing facilities will have to enact solutions to protect the environment and apply modern technologies to mitigate emissions.
The city aims to cut down on the burying of waste while increasing recycling. Agencies are responsible for completing a master plan to deal with water pollution in some rivers. Aiming for fundamental changes in environmental protection in 2017-2020, Hanoi ordered all-level departments and sectors to increase coordination to address pollution.
Apart from raising public awareness of the issue, the city will focus on refining policies and laws on environmental protection and promulgating environmental technical regulations in high-risk fields, populous urban areas and sensitive ecological regions.
Regulations on environmental protection will be revised toward preventing investment projects using low technology and production models that pose a high risk of pollution. Competent agencies also will step up inspections to detect and tackle any violations of environment regulations.
The city will establish a centre for environment data management in 2017 to examine waste discharge. It will also move facilities causing serious environmental pollution far from residential areas.
Vietnam spends about 780 million USD annually on public health costs caused by air pollution. Exhaust gas from thermal power plants contains many pollutants, especially SO2, CO, NOx and dust which can spread out to urban areas. If all coal-fired power plants in Vietnam were built in accordance with the VII power plan with an increasing capacity of around 40,000 MW by 2030, this would be a major threat to current air quality.
Source: hanoitimes.com.vn