Japan to construct plant for industrial waste in capital; Polluters in Tay Ninh face shutdown; Waste treatment areas to be built in Delta. Japan to construct plant for industrial waste in capital. Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Org-anisation (NEDO) will help fund and build an industrial waste treatment system in Ha Noi that will also be used to generate electricity.
The high-tech waste treatment system will be built on a 1-hectare area at the Nam Son waste treatment complex in the suburban district of Soc Son.
The project will include the construction of an incinerator with a daily capacity of 75 tonnes of waste, an exhaust fume treatment system and heat recovery system connected to a 1.2 MW electricity generator, according to NEDO Chairman Seiji Murata.
The pilot project, which may be expanded to other cities in Viet Nam and throughout South-East Asia, aims to treat waste in a way that’s environmentally-friendly while fostering sustainable development.
Work on the project, which has total investment of US$21 million, of which the Japanese side financed $17 million, will be carried out by NEDO in co-operation with Ha Noi authorities and relevant Vietnamese Government agencies.
The involved parties are expected to complete a feasibility study for the project by the end of November, review final assessments during December and sign an agreement by the end of this year.
Construction, production, installation, test runs and personnel training for the plant will be carried out in 2011 and 2012.
NEDO, under Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, specialises in advanced technologies relating to the environment, energy and industry.
Polluters in Tay Ninh face shutdown
Nearly 120 establishments and factories in southern Tay Ninh Province were told to resolve their environmental issues by the end of this year or face closure, the province’s Environment and Natural Resources Department said.
They were found violating environment regulations.
Waste treatment areas to be built in Delta
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Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a plan to build solid-waste treatment areas in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta’s key economic zone over the next 10 years.
Six solid-waste treatment areas will be located in Can Tho City and An Giang, Kien Giang and Ca Mau provinces.
The plan targets that the Delta’s key economic zone, which comprises Can Tho City, An Giang, Kien Giang and Ca Mau provinces, will collect and treat 90 per cent of solid waste in urban areas and industrial parks by 2015, and 100 per cent by 2020.
Under the plan, the Delta’s key economic zone will build an inter-provincial solid-waste treatment area in Ca Mau to treat toxic solid waste for the Delta’s key economic zone.
The remaining five provincial solid-waste treatment area will be built:, one in Ca Mau, one in An Giang, one in Kien Giang and two in Can Tho.
From 2010-15, the Delta’s key economic zone will review and set up a roadmap to close down existing rubbish dumps that do not meet environmental protection standards.
They will also set up plans to collect and classify the kinds of solid waste that come from industrial parks or households.
In 2015-20, the Delta’s key economic zone will focus on building the six solid waste treatment areas.
The Delta’s key economic zone will give priorities to treating solid waste by recycling and limiting burying solid waste in order to avoid environmental pollution. The total amount of solid waste in the Delta’s key economic zone is estimated to reach 4,600 tonnes a day in 2015, and will increase to 7,550 tonnes a day in 2020.
Revised law to better preserve minerals
The management of the exploration and exploitation of natural resources should be strengthened to preserve valuable assets for younger generations, according to attendants of a conference in Ha Noi last week.
This idea was put forth by experts from several sectors to discuss the draft of the amended law on mineral resources exploitation.
“This is a necessary regulation to overcome the poor management of minerals exploitation,” said Nguyen Viet Dung, vice director of People and Nature Reconcilation (PanNature).
Dung said that there has been an unusually high increase of business licences for mineral exploration activities in localities in recent years, causing adverse effects on the environment as well as on people’s livelihoods.
Deputy director of the Consultancy on Development Institute (CODE) Pham Quang Tu said within 12 years, from 1996 to 2008, ministries granted 928 operation licences in this field, 353 of which allowed businesses to exploit minerals.
Many provinces had not reported exploration results to authorities. Tu said the situation was due to lax State management s on mineral exploitation. In addition, he said businesses rushed to exploit resources despite little to no experience and knowledge of the natural resource sector.
Statistics from CODE showed that the sector contributes three to eight per cent to GDP, which is lower than others despite being ranked fifth of all sectors that receive the highest levels of investment from the Government.
Sharing these thoughts, Nguyen Thi Lai from the Mining and Metallurgy Science and Technology Institute said that by 2007 there were nearly 1,700 enterprises participating in mineral exploitation, four times higher than 2000 with a yearly increase of 22 per cent.
Tran Thanh Thuy from PanNature said where there are mines, the lives of locals is much harder: “Roads are destroyed, the environment devastated, unemployment is high and social evils are rampant in these places.” She proposed that mining firms be required to compensate local people for these harmful effects.
Le Dang Doanh, the former head of the Central Institute for Economic Management, said it was time to change the definition of “people ownership” to “national ownership”.
“The revised law, which would be submitted to the Government next month, must declare minerals to be the national resources of the people, and require that their exploitation benefit the State, the people and miners,” Doanh said.
Conference participants suggested the Government hold a trial bidding process for some mineral exploitation areas to formulate regulations so that bidders pay the required taxes and fees.
Le Quoc Dung, deputy head of the National Assembly’s Economic Committee, said the revised law was expected to improve the problems. Dung said the Government needs to build strategies for the next 10 to 20 years, which define clearly the amount of exploitation allowed and the appropriate areas and protection plans.
“The right to explore and exploit minerals will be auctioned, and information and databases on mineral resources will be commercialised to increase the State budget.”
He said the law had recognised auctions as one of the ways to go about mineral exploitation since its enactment in 1996. In reality, mineral exploration and exploitation has mainly been conducted by the State.
“The mining auction process would not only increase contributions to the State budget, but make licence granting in mineral exploitation more transparent and limit ask-and-receive mechanisms.”
However, CODE deputy director, Tu, said it would be dangerous if we carry out auctions without clarifying the exact mineral amounts.
Source: VNS