The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Natural Resources and Environment
targets collecting and fully treating all hazardous solid wastes by
2015.
At a meeting with the city’s National
Assembly delegation earlier this month, Dao Anh Kiet, the department’s
director, said while solid and toxic wastes from industries and
businesses are already being fully collected, those generated
domestically and by some small clinics are not.
All
wastes generated by hospitals and large health centres are also fully
collected while for small clinics only 85-90 percent is, according to
the department.
From medical facilities alone, around 32 tonnes of waste are collected every day.
Certain non-toxic industrial wastes like plastic, paper, and glass are fully recycled at source, Kiet said.
The city has solicited investment in treatment plants that will use
various technologies to treat wastes by recycling and producing compost
fertiliser and electricity, he said.
Now most solid wastes are landfilled.
The city plans to build more plants to treat solid wastes generated by
households, industries, and medical facilities and toxic solid wastes.
It will also speed up upgrades to existing plants and build new ones at hospitals and clinics.
The city has inspected 2,062 producers and fined 1,360 of them a total
of 25 billion VND (1.1 million USD) for violating environmental
regulations since 2005, according to the Environment Protection
division.
Of the violators, 128 have been temporarily shut down.
Cao Trung Son, deputy head of the division, said the fines were not severe enough to deter violators.
The Environment Law does not spell out the penalties for repeat
offenders, he said, adding that proposed amendments to it should include
them.-VNA