Tourist waste pollutes seas, rivers

Research shows that effluent from tourist areas is creating environmental problems.

by Hoa Ta

International tourists visit the eco-village of Ta Phin in Sa Pa District in the northern province of Lao Cai. The hotel sector is trying to achieve a more environmentally friendly industry. — VNA/VNS Photo Nhat Anh

HA NOI — Although a booming tourism industry has turned Viet Nam into one of the hottest destinations in all of Asia, rampant waste by the same industry is destroying the country’s charming coasts and waterways.

According to the Nha Trang Bay Reserve, every day, nearly 10 tonnes of waste water are let into the sea by tourism facilities and locals in Nha Trang City.

Statistics from the Ba Ria-Vung Tau Tourism Department showed that only 300cu.m of more than 1,600cu.m of waste water discarded from hotels and resorts were treated each day.

As forecast by the department, the amount of nitrogen discarded into the sea from waste water will be between 26 and 52 tonnes per day by the year 2020.

Research done by the HCM City Institute for Environmental and Natural Resources showed that sea pollution in tourist areas had become more serious in recent years. The level of Total Suspended Solid (TSS) content in beaches like Do Son, Hai Phong, Binh Dinh, Quy Nhon and Vung Tau was normally two to four times higher than the country’s standard level of 25g per cubic metre.

The head of the Institute for Environmental and Natural Resources, Nguyen Van Phuoc, said that construction projects in tourist areas were messy and destroying nearby ocean ecosystems.

Negligence in regards to waste water treatment in tourist areas had resulted in higher levels of organic pollution in the country’s coastal areas, while fishing and souvenir hunting were also harming underwater environments.

The research showed that a lack of awareness on environment protection had made the situation much worse. Along the beaches of Binh Dinh, Nha Trang and Ba Ria-Vung Tau, waste water from urban and tourist areas was being discarded into the sea without any treatment.

A report, the Economic Impacts of Sanitation in Viet Nam 2008 by the World Bank, said that about 8.8 per cent of the nation’s total economic costs was a direct result of tourism, with an absolute value of US$69 million.

VNAT was now building a framework for a national action programme for the tourism industry. The programme will aim to communicate with hotel and resort owners to raise their awareness of sustainable development.

The Department of Hotels under VNAT was now working with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to build up one set of criteria, giving specific instructions on how to effectively manage energy, water and waste treatments.

The director of the Hotel Department, Nguyen Phuong Anh, said, “It’s not easy to make everyone comply with these standards, as some environmental-friendly facilities will require large investments.”

The department will first focus on education to raise awareness among hotel and resort owners, and then gradually create a set of requirements for all newly-established companies.

With support from the Energy Conservation Research and Development Centre and the French Environment and Energy Management Agency, the department was working on the Eco-label Programme in the hotel sector and across ISO 14000, on environmental management standards, to help organisations minimise their operations’ negative effect on the environment.

“This professional working environment in hotels will effect suppliers, who will in turn also have to prove themselves as friendly to the environment.”

The department also helps hotels and resorts promote their own images overseas by nominating their models at international competitions on tourism and environmental programmes.

“Overseas tourists, especially from European countries, are very picky and tend to choose environmentally-friendly services,” said Anh.

According to Anh, the Committee for Standards Reviews will soon be set up, after the department finishes working on a set of environmentally friendly criteria and labelling satisfied units.

Recognising the vital role tourism was playing in saving the environment, businesses have begun their own programmes. The Sai Gon Tourist Company, for example, now uses recycled products in their 15 member hotels. The Victoria Chau Doc Company launched their own Green Logo Programme, which co-operates with local authorities and students to clean up surrounding areas each quarter.

“This is an investment in the future. Viet Nam attracts tourists with its wild and beautiful landscapes, but we won’t be able to survive in the long term if the environment is destroyed,” said Trinh Quang Man, Director of the Victoria Chau Doc Company. —

Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn

Firm puts forward waste treatment plan

DA NANG — Japan’s Original Engineering Company (OEC) has submitted a project to build a waste treatment system in the Tho Quang Marine Products Services Industrial Zone, the Da Nang People’s Committee said.

Seiichiro Miyamoto, deputy executive of OEC, proposed the project in a meeting with vice chairman of the Da Nang People’s Committee, Van Huu Chien, last Tuesday.

According to Seiichiro, the company’s proposed waste treatment system, funded with ODA (Official Development Assistance) from the Japanese government, will cover an area of 1.2ha and cost about US$14 million to build.

The operation and maintenance costs would be met with service fees collected from factories in the industrial zone, Seiichiro said.

The system would use advanced technology and have an environmentally friendly design, using natural energy sources including solar energy and natural gas, he added.

By-products of the natural gas can be used as fertiliser for agriculture purposes, Seiichiro said.

The proposed wastewater treatment would have many advantages including easy maintenance, reduced service fees, and longer duration, he said.

City officials highly rated the proposal by OEC and asked departments to assess the project and process documentation for it to be implemented at the earliest.

Nearby residents have complained about the increasing pollution caused by ten or so enterprises in the 77ha industrial zone located in Son Tra District.

The OEC had previously installed a medical waste incineration system funded by the Japanese government at the local Hoa Vang Hospital. —

Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn

Full rubbish tips prompt call for action on waste

HA NOI — Rubbish dumps in the capital have become overloaded after the merger with neighbouring Ha Tay Province last year and the volume collected each year is increasing at an alarming rate.

The situation had prompted calls for rapid expansion of dump sites and given urgency to finalising a city waste management plan, municipal Environmental Protection Agency director Nguyen Van Luong said.

Three of five dumps were near capacity and the daily rubbish collection of 3,000 tonnes would be around 4,000 tonnes by the same time next year.

Nam Son Garbage Disposal Complex Area in Soc Son District will be full by 2011. Nearly seven out of its nine burying holes are full already.

The other four dumps include Xuan Son in Son Tay Town, Nui Thoong and Dong Ke in Chuong My District and Kieu Ky in Gia Lam District.

As many as 10 out of 11 burying holes in the Xuan Son Garbage Disposal Area had been filled and, at a rate of 100 tonnes a day, the last one was expected to be filled by the end of the year.

The Nui Thoong dump, managed by Xuan Mai Urban Environment Company, had filled two of its three holes. The remaining hole was being filled at the rate of 100 tonnes a day.

Luong said the merger of Ha Noi with Ha Tay Province last year had overloaded the city’s dumps.

Agency’s statistics show the daily domestic rubbish discharged in the city (as opposed to collected) is 5,000 tonnes, 2,200 tonnes higher than last year and rising. The figures include 3,500 tonnes in urban areas and 1,500 in rural areas.

According to statistics, the city also produces 30,000 tonnes of industrial rubbish a year.

However, there is a furnace with a capacity of 4.8- 5 tonnes a day or 1,800 tonnes a year.

Therefore, thousands of tonnes of industrial rubbish have not been incinerated but buried.

Vice chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Van Khoi said an industrial waste disposal plant with a capacity of 2,000 tonnes a day should be built.

He said there was not enough land to bury all the rubbish being generated and was polluting the environment

The committee has proposed an industrial rubbish furnace at Nam Son with a capacity of 50 tonnes a day.

The US$34.5 million project, funded by South Korean development assistance capital, is expected to become operational next year if approved by the ministry.

Meanwhile, Luong said the city was working on its waste management plan.

Rubbish collection models would be implemented to suit specific areas, especially in rural areas, he said..

“The city has to hasten expansion of Nam Son and Xuan Son dumps. A waste disposal plant using modern technologies is planned for Nam Son or Dong Ke.”

He said that rubbish dumps should be built in rural areas such as Chuong My, Thach That, My Duc and Phu Xuyen. —

Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn

Seven waste treatment plants planned to avoid rubbish crisis

Rubbish is being transported to a waste disposal plant, similar to the ones HCM City plans to build. — VNA/VNS Photo The Anh

HCM CITY — HCM City is building seven waste treatment plants with an estimated daily capacity of 6,000 tonnes of rubbish that will be operational in the next few years, said the Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

A compost-treatment plant with a capacity of 500 tonnes, being built by the Viet Nam Solid Waste Management Company, will begin operation next year.

Vietstar Company is building another compost plant capable of treating 600 tonnes daily.

The company will begin to collect rubbish next year to test the facility before opening it as soon as possible.

Tam Sinh Nghia Company Ltd. is building a micro-organic fertiliser processing factory with a daily capacity of 1,000 tonnes that will open in 2011.

Thanh Cong Company’s solid waste processing factory will have a capacity of 500 tonnes when it begins functioning in 2012.

The same year, another plant that can process 500 tonnes of rubbish every day, built by the city-owned HCM City Urban Environment Company and using Chinese technology, will be opened.

Singapore’s Keppel Seghers Engineering will generate electricity from waste when its plant is ready in 2014.

It will burn 1,000 to 2,000 tonnes of garbage daily.

The International Energy and Environment Corpora-tion’s will also build a facility that will utilise household solid waste to produce electricity. To come into operation in 2015 or 2016, it will also process 1,000-2,000 tonnes daily. —

Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn

Global positioning used in waste control

HCM CITY — HCM City plans to use global positioning technology and an e-card to track the transport of waste and its treatment, an official has said.

Nguyen Trung Viet, head of the city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment’s solid waste management division, said advanced technology was needed to deal with the increasing volume of waste in the city.

Speaking at a conference on Thursday in HCM City, he said companies would use an online form, called an e-manifest, to declare waste and pay environmental charges.

Previously, companies used a registration book in which they included information submitted to the department.

Around 6,400 tonnes of solid waste are produced in the city each day from daily activities.

Additionally, every day, nearly 1,500 tonnes are discharged from construction activities, and nine to 11 tonnes from medical waste. About 250cu.m of waste are released from cesspools.

Because all landfills are located in the outskirts of the city, about 970 vehicles are needed to carry the waste.

Viet said the department could not manage the operation of these vehicles and some often leave the waste illegally at unauthorised places.

He said the department could attach a microchip on every vehicle transporting waste and use a global positioning system (GPS) to track the vehicle’s direction.

The chip could also be used to monitor the amount of liquid waste contained in tank carriers by preventing illegal sales of the liquid when the vehicles are travelling on the road.

Companies involved in transporting and treating hazardous waste would be equipped with an internet-based tool called an e-card.

The e-card would update information about waste and waste treatment via a website belonging to the department, Viet said.

The information would help the department monitor the treatment of waste, he said.

A training course will be held today on how to use the e-card for staff of 30 hospitals. Health facilities discharge a huge volume of medical waste every day. —

Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn

More funds needed for recycling waste

by Khanh Van

An Urban Environmental Company worker collects rubbish on Dong Tac Street in the capital. Only 10 per cent of 20,000 tonnes of rubbish discarded everyday in urban areas is recycled. — VNA/VNS Photo Bui Tuong

HA NOI — Nearly 20,000 tonnes of urban household rubbish is estimatedly discarded every day, but just 10 per cent is recycled, according to the Viet Nam Environment Administration (VEA).

According to VEA, the most common types of waste are paper, plastic, glass, steel and aluminium cans.

“You can see plastic and paper packaging waste everywhere as they are used everyday,” said Nguyen Trung Viet, head of the HCM City’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment’s Solid Waste Management Office.

However, he said few people are aware of the harmful impact these materials have on the environment, which can take 400 years to degrade.

“As rubbish is not separated, much of it goes into landfills, but while organic waste will degrade over time, plastic lasts for hundreds of years,” he said.

So far this year, HCM City has produced more than 762,000 tonnes of plastic packaging and 800 tonnes of paper packaging, he said.

Lack of technology

Making matters worse, the country lacks the technology to recycle much of the waste it produces, said deputy head of the VEA Bui Cach Tuyen.

“Urban rubbish is a mixture of different kinds of waste – construction materials such as cement, sand and gravel, which is hard to recycle,” he said.

“Meanwhile, due to backward recycling technology, most recycling companies are unable to reprocess the rubbish to produce compost for agricultural production. However, the market for this product is too limited as farmers are not really interested in this kind of compost,” he said.

Tuyen added that few people take the time to separate their rubbish, making recycling harder.

Ha Noi and HCM City municipalities have set up recycling centres to encourage people to separate their rubbish into organic and inorganic waste.

“However, people seem to ignore the main function of these dustbins and still throw all kinds of rubbish together,” he said.

Nguyen Quynh Chi, who lives in Ha Noi’s Bach Khoa ward, said she did not know the difference between organic and inorganic waste. “It is not easy for us to separate rubbish into different kinds as we do not know what organic and inorganic waste is. Moreover, it is inconvenient to put rubbish into different bags in your house as it causes a big mess,” she said.

“Besides, I do not have the time to separate my rubbish.”

Le Van An, head of residential building B7 in Thanh Xuan District, Ha Noi, said last year local authorities gave each household two small dustbins for recyclable and non-recyclable waste.

“People still have a habit of putting all kinds of rubbish in the same dustbin. We held many campaigns to encourage local people to separate out their rubbish but it is really difficult to change people’s mindset,” he said.

“The city has now installed two kinds of dustbin for organic and inorganic rubbish along main streets but they received little attention from the public. Some people don’t even put their rubbish in the bins, they just throw it on the street for sanitation workers to pick up, while some street-food sellers use the dust bins to store water to wash their hands,” An added.

The HCM City Department of Natural Resources and Environment implemented a similar project in Districts 1, 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, and Binh Thanh and Phu Nhuan Districts to encourage people to separate out their rubbish but there was little public interest, Viet said.

“The law on environmental protection does not cover household waste, making the job of recycling all the rubbish more difficult,” he said.

In HCM City, there are around 700 firms that collect household waste for recycling but the majority of these businesses are small-scale and do not have the resources to invest in modern technology, he added.

The way out

Tuyen said the public needs to be made aware of their responsibility to protect the environment.

“Raising public awareness about the need to recycle waste is the most important task facing us, particularly among people in rural areas,” Tuyen said.

Dr Tran Thi My Dieu, from Van Lang University in HCM City, said certain kinds of waste should be seen as a valuable resource.

Each tonne of paper packaging that is recycled reduces the need to cut down trees, saving 4,200kWh of electricity and 32cu.m of water, she said.

She said there needs to be huge investment in recycling waste, which the Government should encourage by providing financial incentives.

The director of the HCM City Waste Recycle Fund, Le Van Khoa, said the State should levy a tax on waste produced by plastic – and paper-packaging makers and issue preferential policies to encourage those businesses to recycle their products.

Viet said HCM City was building 10 recycling plants, while Ha Noi’s Construction Department was investing VND879 million (US$48.800) in the treatment of solid waste. —

Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn

Solid waste treatment plant planned for Da Nang

Da Nang (VNA) – The Saigon Energy and Environment Technology Joint Stock Company (Saigonentec) has been issued a permit by the central city of Da Nang to build a solid waste treatment plant.

Covering 1.5 ha in the city’s Khanh Son rubbish dump, the facility will have investment capital totaling 100 billion VND (more than 6 million USD).

It will be capable of processing 600 tonnes of nylon bags, plastic products and rubber tires a day to produce industrial oil, plastic granules and industrial coal.

Saigonentec is also permitted to treat medical and industrial waste discharged from hospitals and factories in the city.

The city of Da Nang is committed to realising its plan to become an environmentally-friendly city in the near future.-

Waste recycling needs rethink

HCM City (VNA) – The city badly needs supportive policies to develop the 3Rs (reduce, recycle and re-use of waste) industry to deal with the increasing amount of waste generated, municipal officials say.

Le Van Khoa, director of the HCM City Recycle Fund, says a lot of waste can be reprocessed to generate composite fertiliser as well as “green” electricity.

Many countries in the world recycle and reuse up to 90 percent of the waste, and only a minimal amount is buried in landfills. However, the situation is reversed in Vietnam , with only 10 percent of waste recycled and reused.

This is not only a waste of resources, but also a burden to the economy, Khoa said.

Nguyen Van Phuoc, deputy director of the HCM City Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said that the city alone discharged from 5,500 to 6,000 tonnes of waste per day and most of it is burried in waste dumps.

He said that the city has had to close the Dong Thanh, Phuoc Hiep and Go Cat landfills because they have been overloaded and it has become increasingly difficult to find new areas to dump waste.

The department said very few enterprises operate in the 3R industry. The city has invited investment in waste recycling, but the lack of specific incentive policies makes it difficult to capture the interest of enterprises.

In order to deal with the increasingly amount of waste, the city has piloted waste classification in households in six districts and invested in technology to generate ‘green’ electricity. However, the projects have not been effective because policy support has been missing, said Phuoc.

He said that the city should come up with a comprehensive policy and strategy covering waste generation, collection and classification that provides financial incentives to enterprises and encourages the public to use ‘green’ products.

Nguyen Van Tai, deputy director of the Institute of Strategy and Policy on Natural Resources and Environment at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, said that in 2007, the country discharged 17 million tonnes of solid waste, including 250,000 tonnes of hazardous waste, 13 million tonnes of domestic solid waste, 2.8 million tonnes of industrial solid waste and about 770,000 tonnes of waste from guild villages.

Tai predicts that the amount of waste could increase to 25 million tonnes in 2010. If the country does not pay attention to developing the 3R industry, the problem will get worse because there will be no land to bury huge amounts of waste in the near future.-

Seven more solid waste plants to be built by 2020

Seven inter-provincial solid waste treatment facilities will be constructed throughout the country between now and 2020, under a master plan approved by the Prime Minister on October 6.

The construction, which will have a total investment of nearly 9.7 trillion VND (around 598 million USD), is expected to improve the efficiency in the treatment of solid waste, particularly harmful ones, to help ensure urban areas and industrial zones develop in a stable and sustainable manner.

According to the plan, certified domestic recycling technology will be prioritised in solid waste treatment and all economic sectors will be encouraged to join in the field.-

Binh Duong’s IP builds waste water treatment plant

Southern Binh Duong province’s Nam Tan Uyen industrial park will build its own waste water treatment plant in line with the trend.

Under a newly-signed contract between the IP and Koastal Eco Industries of Singapore, the plant will have a capacity to treat 2,000 cu. m of water a day in the first phase.

Construction of the project is scheduled for six months and it is expected to be put into operation in early 2009.

According to the province’s Industrial Parks’ Management Board, 10 IPs in the province have already operated their waste water treatment plants with a combined capacity of 27,700 cu.m a day.

Six other plants with a total capacity of 19,800 cu.m. are under construction and are expected to be operational by the end of this year.-