According to the 2009 national environment report, announced in June this year, around 70% of the 1 million cubic meters of sewage produced daily is released directly into Vietnam’s waterways. Experts say that fining polluters who can’t balance their bottom lines is only attacking the tailend of the problem.

At the end of September, the HCM City Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) submitted a petition to the People’s Committee about fining Vuon Lai Printing Co. (District 10) VND185 million for not having a wastewater treatment system. Vuon Lai Printing was one of four companies on the department’s penalty list. The other three were Gia Dinh-Phong Phu Garment Co. fined VND6 million, Tuong Lai Xanh and Ngoc Phu each fined VND25 million.

With Hao Duong Tannery Co., the city authorities have convened countless meetings in order to find a solution. The latest fine was VND170 million at the end of September.

In other localities, the incidence of penalties to enforce environmental regulations is also growing. For instance, early in October, Pangrim Neotex in Phu Tho was fined VND370 million and Vung Tau Paradise Joint-Venture Co. was fined over VND200 million.

The monetary sanctions are not tough enough to stop enterprises from releasing raw sewage into the environment. According to Decree 117, effective from this March, the maximum fine is VND500 million, seven times the old maximum.

While it is a greater deterrent, when the companies compare it with the cost of installing a sewer system that accounts for 20-25% total investment capital, excluding operation costs, accepting a fine is still “economical” for many of them.

Some try to bypass the rules. Incidents of dumping at midnight, during the rain or when the tides rise, according to experts, are very common.

Nguyen Thi Du, chief inspector of DNRE, says there have been occasions of surprise inspections where security guards have blocked the entrance for hours on the pretence of waiting for permission from the director or the director was in a meeting.

Du said that when the inspection team was finally allowed to enter they could not find any breaches, the operations had been shut down and the employees were nowhere to be seen. Once the inspectors leave, things return to normal.

Start from the beginning

To illustrate the cost of operating a clean operation, in September, FrieslandCampina Vietnam in Binh Duong invested EUR2 million in building a class A sewerage treatment system. Everyday, the company has to spend an extra VND100 million to operate the waste treatment.

The cost is a stumbling block for even big enterprises, let alone medium and small ones, whose resources are already stretched dealing with problems of product competition, outdated technology and lack of capital.

For businesses with factories in residential areas, the costs of investing in such a system are huge, from VND10-20 million per cubic meter. In industrial parks, enterprises can connect with a shared wastewater treatment system with a very relatively low fee. Recently, many of these charges have gone up considerably. To treat wastewater from class C to class B, enterprises have to pay VND4,000/cubic meter, and from class B to class A, they have to pay an extra VND4,000/cubic meter, excluding VND2,000 administration fee, in total costing VND10,000/cubic meter of wastewater.

Experts contend that fining enterprises for polluting the environment is only the tip of the iceberg. The root of the problem lies back at the call for investment, when licensed enterprises skipped the environmental issues. So now that the authorities are starting to recognize the damage that is being done and crack down on polluters, these businesses that did not invest in environmental measures from the beginning are getting confused. They say this is their “hot and halting” problem, because whenever inspectors are sent down, they will be fined, because the breaches are everywhere.

Speaking to the Saigon Times, Tran Van Khuong, deputy head of the Legal Division, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, maintains that applying financial penalties to enterprises violating environment regulations is fruitless. In his opinion, whether it is a VND500-million or VND1-billion fine, it will not have much impact, and can even be counterproductive. He says even if enterprises pay the fines, the environmental impacts are still not dealt with, which means even greater costs to the community.

“Investing in the environment accounts for a sizable portion of a project’s capital, excluding operation costs, which is why many businesses still continue to skimp on this component in their initial investment,” Khuong says, adding that the campaign for public awareness and vigilance is the frontline in the environmental battle.

Source: SGT