Environment and natural resources
Pollution and waste
Philippines to suspend 12 more mines in environmental crackdown
A dozen more Philippine mines, mostly nickel projects, are in danger of being suspended in an ongoing environmental crackdown on the sector, an environment undersecretary said on September 21. The Southeast Asian nation, the world’s top supplier of nickel ore, has already halted the operations of ...
Waste management capacity on the rise
The country’s capacity for industrial and toxic waste management will rise to 37.6 million tonnes this year, up from 25.8 million last year, as more treatment factories begin operatations, the Industry Ministry’s Department of Industrial Works predicts. The government’s plan to set up industrial waste management ...
Gov’t urged to install technical barriers to filter FDI projects
Consultants and experts have recommended that Vietnam take measures to prevent foreign-invested projects from using outdated technologies, causing pollution and consuming national resources. First, oil refineries. The projects licensed so far in the field have total capacity of up to 50-60 million tons. It is estimated ...
Why natural gas is a bridge fuel to nowhere
For decades, coal-fired power dominated the U.S. energy supply—and was a leading source of greenhouse gas emissions. But a combination of factors including cheap natural gas, stronger pollution controls, increasing investment in renewable power and improved energy efficiency have pushed coal’s share of the energy market ...
Giant landfill in Saigon causing pollution
The $100 million Da Phuoc solid waste treatment complex in Da Phuoc Commune, Binh Chanh District, HCM City is considered the most modern of its kind in Vietnam but it is also a source of pollution for the surrounding area. Put into operation in 2007 by ...
Red tide blamed for Thanh Hóa fish deaths
The blooming of algae, resulting in the red tide phenomenon, is the main cause behind mass fish deaths reported last week in central Thanh Hóa Province, the provincial People’s Committee said on September 11. Earlier last week, locals found about 300kg of dead fish washed ashore ...
Recycled waste-to-fertilizer plants left idle, investors flee
A series of plants making fertilizer from domestic waste have been built in recent years with ODA capital. And a lot of them, capitalized at tens or hundreds of billions of dong have been left idle. In late 2012, the Hai Duong fertilizer plant was put ...
Scientists: Chinese exports polluting Vietnam through Red River
Lao Cai province’s chair Dang Xuan Phong said the Red River’s water from the other side of the border with China is becoming more seriously polluted. Phong made the complaint at a national online conference on environmental protection chaired by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on ...
Formosa pays $500 mil compensation for marine disaster in central Vietnam
Taiwanese company Formosa Plastics, which caused deadly marine pollution in the central region by discharging untreated effluents, has paid up the US$500 million compensation it promised to, officials said. The environment ministry said on August 31 Formosa had transferred the second half of the promised amount a ...
Vietnam central coast safe for swimming, aquaculture after disaster: study
The results of a study released on August 22 show that Vietnam’s central coast is again safe for swimming and aquaculture, four months after toxic effluents discharged by Taiwan-owned Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp caused mass fish deaths. Prof Mai Trong Nhuan of the Hanoi National University, ...