HÀ NỘI – Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment inspectors are working with six factories that own 200cu.m and above daily capacity wastewater discharge systems in the Central Highlands (Tây Nguyên) province of Kon Tum.

The inspection, which will last 45 days, started last Friday and involves an assessment of the wastewater discharge system of six factories that are suspected to be causing environmental pollution in the river basin in Kon Tum, according to a ministry official.

The six factories are Phương Hoa Ltd.Co’s tapioca processing factory in Đăk Glei District, Vạn Lợi Ltd.Co’s latex processing factory in Kon Tum City, Quảng Ngãi Foodstuff and Agricultural product Joint-stock Company’s alcohol and tapioca factory in Đắk Tô District, as well as Kon Tum Sugar Joint-stock Company in Kon Tum City’s Vĩnh Quang Commune and Thuận Lợi MTV Ltd.Co’s latex processing factory.

Kon Tum Province People’s Committee has asked the concerned factories and relevant offices to jointly coordinate with the inspectors.

Earlier, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Trần Hồng Hà approved a long-term inspection plan targeting large-scale wastewater discharge projects nationwide.

Under the plan, environmental inspectors examined production factories which have discharged waste into the environment. Inspections mainly focused on industrial production factories having capacity of 200cu.m wastewater and above per day, with a high likelihood of causing sea and river basin environmental pollution in cities and provinces.

Besides this, the minister will issue a decision on establishing three inspection teams for factories having capacity of wastewater discharge from 500cu.m and above per day in 23 provinces.

The inspectors must report the results to the ministry within 15 days from the end date of inspection.

The ministry is likely to hold a press conference to officially announce the inspection results by the end of October. — VNS