VietNamNet Bridge – Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Le Duong Quang said on Thursday that the development of industrial parks nationwide had changed the country’s economic picture but it had been causing serious environmental degradation.

These zones are home to more than 5,500 foreign and domestic investment projects, which have created jobs for more than a million people, he said.

“However, pollution at many industrial parks is becoming a grave concern, especially about industrial wastewater,” Quang said in his remarks, of which a copy was obtained by the Daily.

Higher-than-permitted volumes of untreated air, wastewater and harmful waste have been discharged into the environment, threatening people’s health.

Quang described pollution caused by industrial wastewater as most serious. He said that at the moment, the operating industrial parks were discharging some 225,000 cubic meters of wastewater a day, but only 30% of this volume was treated.

This means some 160,000 cubic meters of untreated wastewater flows directly into rivers and canals a day.

According to a ministry report delivered at the seminar, the industrial parks in the country throw away some 30,000 tons of solid and harmful waste, while the treatment of the waste is still insufficient, causing much pollution in many localities.

A report by the Vietnam Environment Administration says the country has no company able to treat harmful industrial waste properly.

This report also says the environment impact appraisal reports carried out by the companies at the industrial parks are inadequate.

According to the report, some 79% of the operating companies have not performed thoroughly what they pledge in their approved environmental impact statements or their violations have not been discovered by the authorities.

The environment administration said some 40% of the country’s industrial parks have no central wastewater treatment facilities.

Tran Hong Ky, vice head of the Division of Industrial Parks and Export Processing Zones of the Ministry of Investment and Planning, said future industrial park development plans should be carefully considered in terms of environmental impacts on surrounding areas, especially those adjacent to residential areas.

Deputy minister Quang backed Ky’s view, saying it’s time to review the development of industrial parks and that investment capital could not attracted at all costs.

(Source: SGT)