Both state management agencies and enterprises complain that the Environment Protection Law has unclear provisions. In many cases, violators are only imposed fines, while they should be considered criminals. Meanwhile, in other cases, enterprises have no other choice than violating the law.
The law makes executive bodies confused
Colonel Luong Minh Thao, Deputy Head of the Environment Police Administration under the Ministry of Public Security, said that the administration has handled with 20,000 law violation cases in the last five years, but none of the cases was put for legal proceedings. This has been blamed on the vague provisions stipulated by the Environment Protection Law.
It was impossible to take legal proceedings against Vedan for its behavior of discharging untreated waste water to the Thi Vai River in Dong Nai province, which has seriously polluted the river, because of the unclear provisions of the law.
According to Dr Nguyen Van Phuong, Leader of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry VCCI’s Team on checking the Environment Protection Law, in many cases, executive bodies did not know what to do with the violators.
To date, there has been no regulation about how to treat the slag from steel furnaces, though this should not be considered a toxic substance. Therefore, according to Pham Chi Cuong, Chair of the Vietnam Steel Association, if environment policemen inspect steel mills, 100 percent of the mills would be imposed fines.
In developed economies like Japan, slag from steel furnaces can be used for making roads, but in Vietnam, enterprises will be fined if they do not treat slag.
Also according to Cuong, the regulations on scrap and waste are unclear. At present, scrap steel satisfies 30 percent of the total materials needed for the steel industry.
However, scrap steel is not allowed to be imported to Vietnam. Up to 200 containers of scrap steel has been lying at the Hai Phong port for two years, because they are considered waste which must not be imported to Vietnam. As a result, many businesses have gone bankrupted while waiting for the final decision from state management agencies.
Other experts have also pointed out that there has been no technical standards which can serve as the basis to differentiate the scrap metals that can be imported, and the waste which must not be imported.
Cuong said that an enterprise imported 10 container of scrap steel, but only 9 containers could get customs clearance, while the 10th could not go through. No one can give the answer now about what to do with the container: state management agencies decided that the container must not be allowed to enter Vietnam, while it is really impossible to re-export the scrap.
Loopholes still exist
According to Thao, under the current laws, enterprises have the right to hire consultancy firms to draw up environmental impact reports. However, the quality of the reports remains problematic. A lot of companies, which only have the functions of giving environmental consultancy with several officers, can also draw up environment impact reports. Meanwhile, nearly all the reports were approved by the state management agencies.
Agreeing with Thao, Phuong has proposed to reconsider the requirements on the firms which have the right to draw up environment impact reports. Besides, it is also necessary to point out how enterprises will be punished if their reports do not have high quality and cause environmental damages.
Vu Quoc Tuan, Chair of the Vietnam Craft Village Association, said that the pollution in craft villages has become serious, but the problem still has not been settled due to the overlapping in the functions of central and local agencies. Since there are too many agencies in charge of dealing with the pollution in craft villages, the problem has never been improved.
Source: Dien dan DN
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