LookAtVietnam – The Committee for Protecting the Nhue-Day Rivers has been set up under a decision released on August 31 by Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai.

Wastewater flows from a craft village in Hanoi to the Nhue River.

This committee is in charge of implementing the scheme to protect the environment in the basin of the Nhue and Day Rivers from now to 2020.

It is responsible for petitioning related agencies to approve and instruct the implementation of annual and 5-year projects and policies to protect the environment of the basin of the Nhue and Day Rivers.

The committee has the right to ask ministries and agencies to supply data on natural resources and the environment related to the basin of the two rivers and ask them to cooperate to deal with inter-regional problems.

The chairman of one of the five provinces and cities sharing the Nhue and Day Rivers will assume the chairmanship of the committee through a vote. In the first three-year term, Hanoi’s Chairman Nguyen The Thao will undertake this post.

Responding to warnings of experts about the imminent death of the Nhue and Day Rivers, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved the comprehensive scheme to protect the environment of the basin of the two rivers to 2020 at a cost of over 3 trillion dong ($176.5 million).

This scheme aims to treat pollution and restore the environment of the basin of the rivers.

The two rivers run through the five provinces and cities of Hanoi, Hoa Binh, Nam Dinh, Ha Nam and Ninh Binh.

Ngoc Le