People’s health or industrial factories?

Hundreds of people in Tien Cat and Tho Son wards in Viet Tri City have been in a state of anxious suspense for the last three years. They fear that the land where they have been settling for the last many generations would become the “cancer villages” due to the terrible smell from the waste water treatment of Miwon – the South Korean invested enterprise.

However, Miwon has denied its responsibility for the local residents’ respiratory diseases, saying that not only Miwon, but a paper and a chemical plant are also running in the area, and that Miwon has spent 8 billion dong to build a new waste water treatment system already. Despite the intervention by Phu Tho provincial competent agencies, Miwon still has not solved the problems.

One year ago, Long Tech, a company in Que Vo Industrial Cone n Bac Ninh province, was forced to pay fine for its behavior of discharging toxic substances to the environment.

The Phong Ke Paper craft village in Bac Ninh province got well-known in 2010 when it paid 34 billion dong to the state budget, the highest level among the 19 communes and wards of the city. However, it has also been well-known for serious environment problems with alarmingly high indexes of toxic substances in waste water, exhaust fumes and solid waste.

Recently, the Nghe An provincial authorities had a working session with the Thai Duong pig breeding Company in Do Luong district--requesting the company to take necessary measures to fix the environment problems. However, no improvement has been made so far, while local residents continue living in pollution.

The above said stories, plus many other cases can show the alarmingly serious situation of air pollution caused by industrial producers. The polluters are asked to take drastic measures to repair the damages. However, they would not face any heavy punishment if they deliberately don’t do that.

People understand that they are always on the disadvantageous position in the struggle with the polluters. Maintaining production to make money proves to be the most urgent task, and only when people get food and warmth, would they be able to think about the environment.

Vietnam lacks policies on environment protection

Dr Phan Dang Tuat, Head of the Institute for Industrial Strategies under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said the alarm bell about the serious pollution has been rung after Vedan or Miwon were discovered as violating the environment laws.

“Vietnam is lacking the strict policies on environment protection. We have been trying to attract investment to develop, therefore, we have fallen into the “environment trap,” becoming the country which receives dirty industries of the world,” Tuat said.

Brewery and drink, seafood, paper and textile are the industries which may have serious impacts on the water environment, while construction, mechanical engineering, transport, electricity and mining on the air environment.

Also according to Tuat, if Vietnam continues loosening the control over the imported technologies, the environment pollution would become even more serious. He has estimated the pollution may cause the loss of 1.2 percent of GDP by 2020.