HCM City must be steadfast in the determination to relocate polluters in the inner city to avert the effects of climate change
It was almost nine o’clock last Wednesday morning, but the sky was bleak and still shrouded by a thin mist. A gentle rain then unexpectedly came down. Taking the motorbike for a customer, the security guard in front of a bank on Nguyen Van Linh Parkway in HCM City’s District 7 sighed, “Oh well, we can’t predict what the weather will be like nowadays. Saigon used to have two seasons in a year, the dry and the rainy ones. But it doesn’t anymore. Everything’s changed because of climate change!”
Spring rains and mist are expected in HCM City. To some, very fine showers in the springtime are even a source of inspiration for poetic creativity. Explaining misty mornings this past week, meteorologists said that the misty weather is an annual phenomenon in the dry season in HCM City. They predicted that the city would have more mist and colder temperature in the sunny season this year.
So, mist and rains in the dry season are usual weather patterns in Saigon. But the security guard’s blame on climate change for the precariousness of the weather may be justifiable as well.
Believe it or not, the environment in this southern city has deteriorated over the years despite efforts made by authorities and communities to reverse the bad situation. Access http://hepa.gov.vn, the official website of the HCM City Environmental Protection Agency, and you’ll find some statistics backing this argument.
Measurements taken in November this year indicate that air pollution in general was worse than that in October. For instance, 90% of the measurements of the dirt content were below par, ranging from 0.43 to 0.91mg/m3, or 1.4-2.7 times higher than the national standard.
Noise pollution is also worrisome. Almost nine out of ten measurements were higher than the permitted level, ranging from 66 to 85dB. For your reference, humans feel comfortable if the noise surrounding them is from 40 to 60dB, and can tolerate for a short while noise whose intensity is from 60 to 80dB. However, if noise exceeds the 80dB level, it will adversely affect human health and hearing ability.
What’s more, organic, biological and oil contamination in the Dong Nai River, the main source of water supply for HCM City and the neighboring provinces, was ever higher.
Environmental protection in HCM City, hamstrung by a lack of the local residents’ awareness, remains a thorny issue. But public awareness of environmental protection and climate change is being raised among the local communities. What the security guard said at the beginning of this article can be seen as an encouraging sign.
In a late October working session between members of the HCM City People’s Council and the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment, delegates pointed out three vexing problems for the environment. Council members cited relocation of polluting factories in the inner city, contaminated canals and arroyos and untreated wastewater discharged by hospitals. They are all old issues which have dragged on for years, though.
These problems should have been radically tackled. In the meeting, Truong Trong Nghia, vice chairman of the Economic-Budgetary Committee of the People’s Council, was quoted by the local press as saying that seven polluting businesses in the relocation program which started in 2003 were still in place in residential quarters. Worse, these big manufacturing polluters are either state-owned or have a state stake. Over the past seven years, they have been there and have polluted the city unpunished!
When it was first launched in 2007, the Department of Environmental Police under the Ministry of Public Security was expected to minimize pollution in Vietnam. In fact, environmental police have done their job. A speaker at the meeting, Nguyen Quoc Hung, head of the environmental police in HCM City, said since June 2009, environmental police officers under his supervision had fined 155 polluting businesses. The polluters had to pay VND3.2 billion for their violations. However, as the fines were way too modest relative to the costs of installing treating facilities, polluting entities have opted for paying fines rather than buying treatment equipment.
In protecting the city’s living environment, who should lead the way? Authorities or the public? Whoever does that should pay attention to the following fact. Environmental experts have pointed out that HCM City is among the 10 cities in the world which are most affected by climate change.
