Completing the revised Land Law, providing guidance on licensing mines for highway construction materials, and addressing air pollution... are major issues awaiting new Minister Dang Quoc Khanh to resolve.
On the afternoon of May 22, Ha Giang Provincial Party Secretary Dang Quoc Khanh was approved by the National Assembly to be appointed Minister of Natural Resources and Environment for the 2021-2026 term, becoming one of the two youngest incumbent members of the Government (47 years old).
As a PhD in Urban and Construction Management, a civil and industrial engineer, Mr. Khanh has many advantages as a leader in the environmental resources sector, but there are also a series of challenges awaiting him.
Completing the draft of the revised Land Law
After widely consulting with the people, the draft revised Land Law is being finalized by the Government to submit to the National Assembly for comments for the second time at the ongoing session. Professor Hoang Van Cuong (Vice President of the National Economics University, National Assembly Delegate of Hanoi) said that the three biggest issues in the draft are waiting for the new Minister of Natural Resources and Environment - the drafting agency to receive, are land recovery; compensation, resettlement support and land finance.
The latest draft details projects that are allowed to reclaim land for socio-economic development in the national and public interest, but delegates and the public still have conflicting views. Many people believe that the State should limit land reclamation, replacing it with a negotiation mechanism. However, some say that if there is an agreement, conflicts will arise, possibly causing damage to those whose land is reclaimed.
"Which option the new Minister chooses to present to the National Assembly, based on what basis and what impact, is a huge challenge," said Mr. Cuong.
Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Quoc Khanh. Photo: Hoang Phong
According to the draft, people whose land is recovered will be guaranteed by the State to have housing, income, and living conditions equal to or better than their previous place. However, according to Mr. Cuong, the drafting committee needs to consider the feasibility of the regulation when applying it in practice.
Local regulations will publish annual land price lists, close to market prices, which is also a controversial issue. If the land price list is published for many years while the market fluctuates continuously, it is not appropriate, but if it is published annually, local resources are an issue that needs to be considered. The Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) has repeatedly proposed that land price lists should be published periodically every 2-3 years.
"The Minister needs to provide a solid basis to defend the proposal as drafted or accept and edit it to suit reality," Mr. Cuong suggested.
Associate Professor Nguyen Quang Tuyen (Head of the Faculty of Economic Law, Hanoi Law University) also said that the new Minister's adoption of the correct policies in the draft revised Land Law will contribute to clearing bottlenecks in land management and use, and promoting enormous resources for national development.
"The issue of land recovery and land finance needs to harmonize the relationship between the State, land users, and investors. The bill also needs to provide a mechanism to control power to combat corruption in the land sector," said Mr. Tuyen.
Guidelines for licensing highway construction material mines
Nationwide, 12 North-South Expressway projects, phase 2, with a length of more than 700 km, are being implemented. Many other projects, such as Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 and Hanoi Capital Region Ring Road 4, are also preparing to start construction. However, a shortage of embankment materials is occurring at many projects.
In the West, the two expressway projects Chau Doc - Can Tho - Soc Trang and Can Tho - Ca Mau alone need about 40 million cubic meters of sand, but the local material sources cannot meet the demand. The Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 project will start construction in June, but is at risk of being behind schedule due to a shortage of 7 million cubic meters of sand. Ho Chi Minh City has asked the provinces of Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Vinh Long, An Giang, Tien Giang and Dong Thap to support sand filling.
In early April, the Prime Minister issued an official dispatch requesting localities to coordinate with investors to review and increase the capacity of licensed stone, sand, and soil quarries to meet the highway construction schedule.
Ham Tri quarry serves the construction of Vinh Hao - Phan Thiet expressway. Photo: Viet Quoc
For the North-South Expressway project phase two, by mid-May, contractors had submitted to the local authorities documents for 48 out of 82 soil mines that needed to be licensed; submitted 25 out of 31 sand mine documents. However, the local authorities have only licensed 2 soil mines to contractors.
The Ministry of Transport has sent a document requesting the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to provide detailed instructions on the procedures for exploiting minerals as construction materials for projects for two types of mines: earth fill and construction sand. This includes all the steps that must be taken from the composition of the dossier, receiving the dossier, appraising the dossier, and confirming the registration of the mining volume so that localities can implement it uniformly.
Improving urban air pollution
Air pollution in Vietnam has become increasingly serious over the past decade. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), each year in Vietnam, about 60,000 people die from diseases related to air pollution such as lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and pneumonia. The 2022 National Environmental Status Report states that in the period 2016-2021, the environment in large cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, or industrially developed cities such as Bac Ninh and Phu Tho was polluted at many times, mainly by dust.
Pollution levels in northern cities are higher than in the central and southern regions. In Hanoi, on average over the past four years, only 28% of days had good air quality index (AQI); 47% of days were average; 6% of days were bad and very bad.
Major cities in Vietnam are also facing PM 2.5 dust pollution. In Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other industrialized areas, PM 2.5 dust index continuously exceeds the standard threshold by 2-3 times. In rural areas, although air quality is better than in urban areas, it has recently tended to worsen. Many causes have been mentioned such as traffic, construction, industry, but so far the authorities have not had an effective solution.
"Solving the problem of air pollution is a big challenge that requires efforts and coordination from the environmental resources sector and many units and localities," said Mr. Nguyen Quang Dong, Director of the Institute for Policy Studies and Media Development (IPS).
Restoring "dead" rivers
Vietnam has nearly 700 rivers, streams, canals and inter-provincial water sources in 16 main river basins; more than 3,000 rivers and streams in intra-provincial basins. Many rivers are seriously polluted. For example, the 74 km long Nhue - Day River flows through Hanoi, Hoa Binh, Ha Nam, Ninh Binh, Nam Dinh with the river basin water quality often at a poor level, 62% of monitoring points have results of bad or worse; 31% of points have results of severe pollution, requiring treatment measures.
The Red River basin is also polluted with the hotspot being the Bac Hung Hai irrigation system, which stretches 200 km through Hanoi, Bac Ninh, Hung Yen and Hai Duong. In recent years, this irrigation system has been seriously polluted by organic matter. In 2019, 90% of monitoring locations showed results of organic matter and microorganisms exceeding standards.
Pollution at the end of the To Lich River where it meets the Nhue River, August 2020. Photo: Ngoc Thanh
In the South, the Dong Nai River basin is greatly affected by industrial activities and urban wastewater. The water quality of the Thi Vai River has improved, but some sections show signs of increased organic pollution. The water quality of the Saigon River through the inner city of Ho Chi Minh City is often polluted. Many monitoring locations show that pollution indicators exceed the standard by 8-14 times.
According to Mr. Nguyen Quang Dong, in addition to the problem of restoring "dead" rivers, the new Minister of Natural Resources and Environment also needs to have fundamental solutions to protect water resources. This requirement is increasingly urgent because of the risk of drought and freshwater shortages that may occur this year, when the impact of El Nino is growing. "Coordinating water resources between regions and with countries in the region requires the capacity, courage, and strategic vision of the new Minister," Mr. Dong said.
Household waste treatment
Every day, the whole country generates more than 81,000 tons of solid waste. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City alone generate 12,000 tons of waste every day. In addition to burning in incinerators, landfilling is still a popular method. There are 900 landfills nationwide, with a total area of 4,900 hectares.
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, 80% of landfills are unsanitary. Many landfills in large cities are overloaded, causing environmental pollution and facing public opposition. Meanwhile, incinerators are mostly small-capacity, without exhaust gas treatment systems, causing air pollution.
Garbage collection area behind My Dinh bus station (Nam Tu Liem district) on December 30, 2020. Photo: Ngoc Thanh
Poor waste management has made Vietnam the fourth largest ocean polluter in the world, after China, Indonesia, and the Philippines. It is estimated that the country discharges about 2.8-3.2 million tons of plastic each year, of which 0.28-0.73 million tons drift out to sea. In some coastal areas, when fishermen pull their nets, for every three tons of fish, there is one ton of trash. Each year, Vietnam loses about 3 billion USD due to not recycling plastic.
The 2020 Law on Environmental Protection stipulates that people are required to classify waste at source; if they violate the law, they will be refused collection or subject to administrative fines. However, localities are still struggling with methods of waste collection and treatment, as they await detailed instructions from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
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