VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment will likely impose a maximum fine of VND500 million on violations of the environmental protection law in a move to curb environmental pollution.

At a meeting on an environment management program held in HCMC on Wednesday by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, officials of the department agreed that the present fines were too low.

A new decree specifying the new higher fines for environment polluters will be issued to replace the prevailing Decree 81 issued in 2006 by the Government.

Decree 81 provides unclear provisions that could lead to environmental pollution cases being handled in an undesirable way. Given the current regulations, companies are willing to pay fines for their violations, instead of spending heavily to restore the environment.

Nguyen Thi Du, the city’s chief environment inspector, said many companies ignored dealing with environmental damage because the regulations in the present decree were not strict enough.

“I think the increase in fines on environmental pollution will help to stifle any act of environmental pollution,” Du told the Daily on Wednesday.

To stop the acts of polluting the environment, the environment department is preparing to carry out snap inspections at suspected companies in the days to come.

Nguyen Van Phuoc, vice director of the department, said an interdisciplinary inspection team responsible for checking environmental protection at companies in the city would be formed within next month.

“Such snap inspections will run from next month to late this year, concentrating on companies at industrial parks and export processing zones, manufacturers along the rivers and canals,” Phuoc said.

He said that beside the two month inspection, the department had told operational companies to have pledges for environmental protection and that they must complete their waste treatment systems by March 31 next year.

The city has a zero tolerance for any cases similar to Vedan Vietnam in Dong Nai Province, he said.

In a related development, the HCMC Export Processing and Industrial Zones Authority (Hepza) on Tuesday publicized the list of 26 companies found to have violated the environmental protection law.

According to Hepza, these companies discharged untreated wastewater into the environment several times, but they failed to deal with the damage caused for the environment or complete their wastewater treatment facilities as required.

Nguyen Thanh Tung, head of Hepza’s construction and environment management department, said on Wednesday that the authority within this week would work with leadership of the companies and that Hepza would propose suspending any company that continued polluting the environment.

(Source: SGT)