Wild vegetables, herbs and leaves from trees planted on the banks of the Sài Gòn and Vàm Cỏ rivers in Tây Ninh Province’s Trảng Bàng District are known by their taste, smell and use in bánh tráng phơi sương (dew-soaked rice paper), boiled meat dishes, and fish sauce.

The HCM City People’s Committee has approved aid from Dutch NGO Oxfam Novib Foundation for an ongoing project to safeguard and strengthen the rights of private garbage collectors, Sài Gòn Giải Phóng (Liberated Sài Gòn) newspaper has reported.

The waste pond breakage that discharged over 45,000cu.m of mud and untreated chemical-filled wastewater in Bảo Thắng District of northern mountainous Lào Cai Province last week will severely affect eco-system of surrounding areas. The recovery period will take time and be challenging, said Dr Trần Thế Loãn, former deputy head of Environmental Management Department of Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

The city’s People’s Committee has directed city police and border guards to strengthen management, inspection and handling of illegal sand mining on rivers and canals in the city.

Having failed to enter public high school, Võ Hoàng Khoa from HCM City’s outlying district of Củ Chi applied to enroll at the district’s Centre for Continuing Education.

The Government has approved the new decree on raising fines for food safety violations, which would reach VNĐ 200 million (US$5,840) or seven times higher than the value of goods.

The Southern Expressway Projects Management Unit (SEPMU) has urged Đồng Nai Province to speed up site clearance to ensure the construction progress of the Bến Lức-Long Thành Expressway which runs through Long An and Đồng Nai provinces and HCM City.

One person was killed and four others seriously injured after a boiler exploded on Monday morning at a rice paper producer on Nhơn Hòa 1 Street, the Mekong Delta province of Long An’s Tân An City.

The Plant Protection Department plans to soon submit to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to remove another three toxic active ingredients of Fipronil, Chlorpyrifos and Glyphosate used in current weed killers.