Illustrative image. (Source: VNA)Ba Ria-Vung Tau (VNA) – The southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau has urged for closercoordination in environmental protection and management at local industrial parks(IPs).
The request was madeby Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Le Tuan Quoc to theprovince’s IP management board, departments, and related authorities while hechaired a meeting on September 25 to discuss the rules of cooperation betweenthem to manage environmental issues at the IPs.
Quoc asked for tightercontrol in licensing projects, preventing the approval of those posing seriousrisk to the environment, as well as intensifying the inspection and supervisionof waste disposal factories at the IPs to promptly settle violations.
According the IPmanagement board, the province has 15 IPs, 11 of which are operational with acombined total of 353 projects. All 11 of these IPs have a waste treatmentplant with an average daily flow of 42,000 cu.m. Among them, 10 have developedautomated wastewater monitoring systems – of which, six have transmitted datacollected from the system to the province for review, while the five others arein the process of purchasing equipment for data transmission.
The board alsoreported on several challenges to environmental management in the province. Forexample, Phu My 1 IP is located near several residential areas, and the highdensity of steel mills in a single IP has negatively affected the livingenvironment of local people. Meanwhile, there is a lack of guidelines forformulating and verifying reports of environmental assessment for high-riskprojects.
It is necessary tohave rules for cooperation between the management board and related authoritieson environmental protection and general management. As such, the managementboard will serve as a contact point between various authorities, including theDepartment of Natural Resources and Environment, the police, and local people’scommittees.
The rules must alsostipulate how to coordinate the evaluation and approval of reports ofenvironmental impact assessment, plans for environmental protection, andothers. –VNA
VNA
