At the National Assembly (NA) meeting on environment at economic zones and craft villages, Chairman of the NA’s Committee for Science, Technology and Environment Phan Xuan Dung reported that Vietnam has nearly 4,600 craft villages. More than 1,300 of them have been recognized as traditional craft villages and over 3,200 other villages have trades that create jobs for over 11 million people.
Many craft villages have a long history, for example Dai Bai bronze casting village in Bac Ninh province with nearly 1,000 years of development, Bat Trang potery village in Hanoi with nearly 500 years of history, Dong Xam silver carving village in Thai Binh and Non Nuoc stone carving village in Da Nang with over 400 years of history. Hanoi alone has up to 1,350 craft villages, including 270 recognized as traditional craft villages.
Dung said that the living standards of people in most of craft villages are higher than those in neighboring areas but environmental pollution has become a great challenge for them. Surveys show that pollution at these villages is on the rise.
Pollution in craft villages is mainly caused by the use of coal and chemicals. Metal recycling, production of construction material and pottery are the most polluters.
According to Dung, solid waste in most of craft villages are not collected and treated. In many villages, locals discharge waste rampantly, causing air, water and soil pollution.
“Pollution has been a big problem at craft villages for a very long time and it is getting serious, affecting the health of workers and the local community,” Dung added.
At mental recycling villages, up to 60 percent of residents commit mental, respiratory, dermatological disease, deaf and cancer. At food processing villages, up to 13-18 percent of women suffer from gynecological diseases, 8-30 percent of population commit with digestive diseases, 4.5-23 percent of people with dermatological diseases, and 6-18 percent with respiratory diseases.
Pollution has been realized for many years, funding for environmental protection at craft villages is very limited.
Deputy Ma Dien Cu from Quang Ngai province said that the government needs to have supportive policies for craft villages. He also asked the NA to issue a resolution on the implementation of environmental laws and a national program on environment at craft villages.
Deputy Than Duc Nam from Da Nang said that according to the World Bank, Vietnam’s gross domestic product (GDP) may reduce by 5.5 percent annually because of pollution at craft villages.
Deputy Nguyen Duc Hien said legal documents relating to environmental protection were not synchronous, resulting in a lack of strict policing of violations and discontent among residents.
Many legal documents were produced too slowly or were too general, making them too difficult to enforce, he said. Hien said authorities had not yet paid due attention to environmental protection while penalties for violators remained light. Similarly, environmental impact assessment had received little attention during the investors' licence processes, despite it being compulsory under the Law on Environmental Protection.
Deputy Truong Minh Hoang said 110 legal documents had been issued to regulate the development of economic zones. "We are not short of legal documents regarding the issue but the problem lies in the low quality and ineffective execution of these documents," Hoang said.
Hoang said environmental pollution had been increasingly alarming in economic zones and craft villages yet few violators were penalised. The deputy attributed the situation to overlapping management and a lack of interest in environmental protection, from grassroots office level upwards. Many provinces turned a blind eye to violations because they wanted to attract investment, he said.
Deputy Truong Thai Hien said economic zones and craft villages had generated jobs for nearly 1.5 million people and contributed to growth in the southern province of Kien Giang. However, environmental pollution in economic zones had been two to six times higher than allowable rates there, he said. He asked the Assembly to revise Decree 67 concerning the collection of environmental protection fees for waste water, saying the current rates remained too low and were not enough to cover the cost of testing waste water samples.
He also requested provincial authorities be given more power to oversee dumping grounds as Departments for Industry and Trade, Natural Resources and Environments were currently overlapping in managing these dumping grounds and were passing the buck to each other.
Deputy Nguyen Minh Lam said the quality of waste waster discharged from craft villages was not closely controlled before connecting to concentrated waste water treatment systems at economic zones, causing overloading and pollution.
Lam and other deputies asked the Assembly to issue a resolution on environmental protection supervision in economic zones and craft villages.
Participants at the session were told there were 18 coastal economic zones with 800 projects capitalised at US$50.8 billion. Viet Nam also had 3,400 craft villages employing more than 11 million workers. Of which, 30 per cent of employees were rural people.
Deputy Than Duc Nam requested the Assembly assess environmental protection laws and policies to see if they conformed with reality. He cited the Law on Environmental Protection issued in 2005 that related to seven ministries and localities, yet co-ordination between them was neither smooth nor in accordance with their responsibilities. He said they had not yet conducted regular inspections over the treatment of solid waste, exhaust fumes and waste water.
Deputy Ly Kieu Van, meanwhile, said crimes and violations on environmental protection law were increasing. A Government report had found more than 1,700 environmental pollution cases this year, representing an increase of 72.6 per cent compared with the previous year. Only 135 cases with 138 offenders had been prosecuted while the rest received administration fines.
Similarly, a NA Standing Committee report said most coastal economic zones of 15 surveyed had not yet met their commitments on environmental protection. Very few had concentrated waste water treatment systems and some that had them but shut them down to save costs.
Van voiced her concern over synchronous management of different ministries on environmental protection issue. "I'm not sure if the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is able to become a bandmaster and take major responsibility over the environment issue," she said.
Many deputies proposed to shut down seriously polluting craft villages and move factories out of residential areas.
Ngoc Le
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