Resources ‘key to sustainability’

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment plans to make natural resources and the environment one of the key factors for sustainable development.

Its plans are part of the draft strategy for the development of natural resources and environment to 2020 which was with a vision of 2030 published yesterday.

The strategy is intended to:

Improve resources and the environmental law;

Develop the personnel and technical infrastructure needed to forecast natural disasters accurately; and

Effectively exploit and use natural resources while preventing pollution; and Manage islands.

Specifically, it is planned to provide short-term weather forecast and warnings for floods in river systems of 85 per cent precision;

Ensure environmental impact assessments for 100 per cent of all projects; Enforce waste-treatment systems for 80 per cent of industrial zones and urban precincts; and

Ensure 80 per cent of domestic waste is classified and toxic waste properly treated.

Institute of Strategy and Policy for Natural Resources and Environment director Nguyen Van Tai said the plan was for a market-based approach that forced beneficiaries and polluters to increase to 20 per cent the State revenue drawn from natural resources and the environment.

The approach would allow the bidding for land-use rights and mineral exploration, he said.

But some fear the approach will not be understood at the grassroots.

Former Viet Nam Institute of Development Studies director Professor Dang Ngoc Dinh said that the proper and economic exploitation of natural resources was the key to the plan.

But the market principle could spawn numerous mining licences.

For example, many provinces allowed foreigners to lease land for 50 years while Vietnamese were short of it for production, he said.

Ha Noi National University’s Environment Faculty’s Professor Nguyen Dinh Hoe suggested that the ministry build an environmental security centre to increase the capacity of the relevant agencies to deal with natural disasters.

“The strategy should focus more on environmental impact assessments because many enterprises have been found to have built fake systems that cannot treat waste,” the professor said.

The study of radioactivity had also yet to be done and he suggested the ministry prepare maps of Viet Nam’s radioactive zones as soon as possible.

Deputy Natural Resources and Environment Minister Tran Hong Ha has instructed the Institute of Strategy and Policy for Natural Resources and Environment to re-appraise the draft plan and provide specifics for 2011-15 and 2016-20.

Implementation of the strategy would be revised every five years, the deputy minister said.

This is the second time the draft strategy has been made available for public discussion. — VNS

Tags: Vietnam resources