HCM City tackles growing amount of waste, pollution

HCM CITY — HCM City is putting in place various measures to reduce pollution, with an emphasis on sorting waste at the dumping source and clearing the canal network of waste..

The Department of Natural Resources and Environment was facilitating the sorting of waste at high-tech zones, industrial parks, export processing zones, supermarkets, markets and some residential areas, Nguyen Van Phuoc, its director, said.

It is urging the city government to install an automatic monitoring system for wastewater released from industrial parks and export processing zones, he said.

He told a recent internal meeting that it was mulling ways to collect the waste deposited in and floating around canals across the city.

Those in residential areas were in particularly dire state after the city stopped funding a programme to collect waste from canals a while ago, he said.

The department would study the effectiveness of placing large rubbish bins in public places, and effect required changes, he said.

It would work with related agencies to spell out the specific responsibility of various agencies in enforcing the penalties for polluting since a lack of clarity in this issue has led to a failure to enforce environmental laws, he said.

The department is also working on a list of industries that will be prohibited in residential areas.

It has already urged city authorities to move the polluting Ba Son Union Enterprise and Ha Tien Cement Plant from residential areas. — VNS