VNB 4 November 2008
Ips across Vietnam had helped change its economic picture but has been causing serious environmental pollution, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Le Duong Quang told a recent seminar on models for environmental management at IPs in Nha Trang city of Khanh Hoa province, Vietnamnet reported.
Vietnam now has 200 industrial and export processing zones, which are home to more than 5,500 foreign and domestic investment projects, creating jobs for more than a million people, Quang added. The IPs have been discharging some 225,000 cubic meters of wastewater a day and only 30% of this volume was treated, he noted. This means 160,000 cubic meters of untreated wastewater flows directly into rivers and canals a day. Statistics of a ministry report showed that the IPs nationwide throw away some 30,000 tons of solid and harmful waste, while treatment of the waste is still insufficient, causing pollution in many localities. Up to 79% of the operating companies have not performed thoroughly what they pledge in their approved environmental impact statements and 40% of the country's IPs had no centralized wastewater treatment facilities.
Tran Hong Ky, vice head of the Division of Industrial Parks and Export Processing Zones of the Ministry of Investment and Planning, said future IP development plans should be carefully considered in terms of environmental impacts on surrounding areas, especially those adjacent to residential areas.
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