VietNamNet
Bridge – The Government of Vietnam has decided to halt licensing mining
projects in an effort to stop the spontaneous mining in a massive scale, which
has caused social evils and environment pollution.
Minister, Chair of the Government Office, Vu
Duc Dam, has confirmed that licenses for mining ores were granted to a lot of
mines recently. Meanwhile, the mining activities have been carried out
spontaneously in a large scale, which has caused serious consequences.
The government has assigned the Ministry of
Natural Resources and the Environment (MONRE) to draft the strategy on minerals
exploitation in Vietnam by 2020. Minerals are the important national assets
which must be protected, managed and used in an effective and economical way.
The exploitation, processing and use of minerals must come in line with the
national development strategy and for the national benefits. Minerals need to
be exported on the principle of balancing the exports and the domestic demand.
The decision has been made after mass media
continuously rang the alarm bell over the serious environment pollution in the
mining areas. The participants at the national conference on mining held in Nha
Trang City on August 8, 2011, all voiced the same concern that the titanium ore
mining has caused widespread waste of resources, affected the environment
(soil, surface water, and groundwater); damaged landscape, topography, and
affected people's life.
The conference heard that the decentralization
mechanism in licensing mining projects is the most important reason behind the
spontaneous and massive exploitation of titanium ores, which has also led to
the imbalance in exploitation and processing.
To date, Binh Dinh province has granted 21
licenses to the titanium exploitation projects, while Binh Thuan has granted 8
licenses.
Cong Ly newspaper has reported that the Thuy
Nguyen district in Hai Phong City, which contains 380 million cubic meters of
limestone, 33 million cubic meters of silic and 360 cubic meters of clay, has
been “cut into small bits” by the exploitation activities.
A cubic metre of silic now can be sold for
40,000 dong, while a cubic meters of clay for tens of thousands of dong.
Therefore, every day, it is estimated that exploiters “chop up” the mountains
and dig up thousands of cubic meters of soil to look for ores for sale.
In Dak Nong province in the central region,
the forests have been chopped down because people rush to look for gold. The
exploiters use draw machines, bulldozers, drilling and all other possible tools
to draw sand, dig mines and split mountains, which has devastated thousands of
hectares of forests. Here the streams of Dak R’mang, Dak N’ting, and K’rong No
River have all become muddy.
The gold illegal exploitation in the area has
seriously damaged the local rivers which are the main sources of clean water
for local residents. The rivers now serve as the tanks that contain mud and red
soil. More importantly, the land plots along the foothills, mountains or the
upstream slots are full of toxic chemicals such as mercury or cyanua, which
gold exploiters discharge to the environment.
Jang A Phanh in Dak R’mang commune said that
in the past, the rivers were mild and blue. However, they have become furious
nowadays, because they bring skin diseases to local residents. A lot of people
were once poisoned when drinking the water from the river, while shrimp and
fish had all died. The water of the rivers has become no more the means of
subsistence for the poor people there.
Residents in Quang Ngai province have also
been weeping because of the exploitation at the stone mines. There in the
province, where the stone mines bring money and food, local residents have to
live together with white stone dust all the time and go on seriously
downgrading roads.
The provincial department for natural
resources and the environment has said that the noise and dust concentration in
the air always far exceeds the allowed level by tens of times, while the dust
here always contains benzene and SO2.
C. V
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