Unsustainable human activities, together with emerging climatic
extremes, have increased pressure of pollution and degradation on
Vietnam’s land, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has
said.
The Ministry estimated that fertilisers used in agriculture
reached 2.5 to 3 million tonnes a year, 50 to 70 percent of which was
discharged into the environment.
Meanwhile, 335 spots with
pesticide residues in soils had been identified nationwide but they had
not been cleaned up effectively.
Cultivation land was being
degraded due to landslides, erosion, desertification and salination. Up
to 9.3 million hectares of land, accounting for 28 percent of natural
land, are threatened by desertification.
In the northern
mountainous provinces and the Central Highland, the total land subject
to erosion could equal 150 tonnes per hectare.-VNA