Hot weather to blame for forest fire; Six die, dozens hurt on Thu Duc roads; Companies taken off pollution blacklist; Biodiversity can help Mekong Delta; Untreated waste water discharged illegally
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Hot weather to blame for forest fire
Two forest fires occurred in central Nghe An Province’s Quynh Tan and Hung Yen Nam communes on Thursday. The fires destroyed nearly 100ha of forest.
Hot weather and strong winds exacerbated the fires.
Police, forest officials and local residents battled the blaze for nine hours before it was brought under control.
More hot weather is forecasted for the northern and central regions during the next few days.
According to the National Hydro Meteorological Forecast Centre, temperatures are expected to exceed 38 degrees Celsius.
Six die, dozens hurt on Thu Duc roads
Traffic accidents in Thu Duc District in HCM City have caused six deaths and dozens of injuries over the past 10 days.
One of the main reasons for the accidents was the interlacing road system in the district, said Tran Van Dung, head of the district’s Traffic Safety Committee.
There were also a high number of vehicles travelling on national highways 13, 1K, 1A and towards Ha Noi everyday, which added to the problems, Dung said.
Another reason was that many industrial parks were located on the way from the district to southern Binh Duong Province, so at rush hours, the roads were always crowded with people and vehicles, he said.
Together with raising the public’s awareness, the committee would also recommend traffic police strictly fine those breaking the law.
Nguyen Thi Nau, a resident in Binh Chieu Ward, said illegal motorcycle races, which had been happening on weekends for years,were endangering other drivers.
Vo Van Van, deputy head of HCM City’s Road Traffic Police, said that a month after the implementation of Government Decree No 34 which took effect on May 20, violations in the inner city had been reduced sharply, partly thanks to steeper fines. But on the outskirtsof the city, people still violated traffic rules.
About 90 traffic accidents occurred killing 75 people and injuring 30 others during the past month since the application of the decree, 13 cases more than last month in the city, Van said.
City police had also fined 500 pedestrians who violated traffic rules, he said.
Companies taken off pollution blacklist
Ninety-five of 125 companies have conformed to environmental regulations after being on a black list since 2008, according to the southern Dong Nai Province’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment.
Two of the companies, Dong Nai Battery and Bien Hoa Steel Joint-Stock Co, have built wastewater and waste gaseous treatment systems that are linked with treatment plants in localindustrial parks.
The department said regular inspections had been conducted from the beginning of this year. A total of 197 companies will be inspected by the end of the year.
The province will also offer loans with preferential interest rates to help companies build wastewater and waste gaseous treatment systems.
Nineteen out of 21 industrial parks have wastewater treatment factories, except for two industrial parks Ong Teo and Thanh Phu.
Construction has been slow because of plodding site clearance, according to the department.
Biodiversity can help Mekong Delta
International climate change scientists met with (Cuu Long) Mekong Delta local experts and communities to discuss measures to cope with climate impacts at Kien Giang Province’s Rach Gia city yesterday.
Speaking at the Forum “Biodiversity and Climate Change at Mekong Delta”, Dr Geoffrey Blate, Climate Change Coordinator of WWF’s Greater Mekong Programme, said it’s high time the area sought proper solutions to preserve the region’sbiodiversity and to cope with other negative impacts of global warming.
About 130 delegates from the Kien Giang Province Committee, National Committee and WWF participated in the forum aiming to raise people’s awareness about the value ofbiodiversity and ecology in coping with global warming in the region.
The climate change forum also discussed the significant roles of Biosphere Reserve Zones.
Nguyen Hoang Tri, general secretary of the National Committee of Programme on Viet Nam People and Biosphere, said Kien Giang Province will introduce the World Biosphere Reserve Zone this week, making it oneof the world’s biggest biosphere zones with a range of tropical eco-systems.
Global warming has been proven worldwide to have negative impacts on biodiversity, especially in the Mekong Delta, experts have warned.
The Mekong Delta is the hub of biodiversity in the Asia Pacific, known for the large number of endangered species in recent years and 1,000 new species discovered during the last decade.
The Biosphere Reserve Zone would be an effective measure to cope with the climate change by conserving biodiversity as well as cultural and traditional values, Tri of the National Committee of the Programme on Viet Nam People and Biosphere, noted.
Specific measures to ensure biodiversity in coping with climate change in the Delta will be presented at an international seminar on Biodiversity and Climate Change today in R?ch Giá city.
The United Nation has chosen this year as the year of Sustainable Development and Biodiversity.
Untreated waste water discharged illegally
Factories in the Hoa Binh Industrial Zone in the Central Highland province of Kon Tum were discovered discharging untreated waste water into the environment.
The director of the zone’s Infrastructure Investment Development Company has admitted that a waste water treatment system was not built for the zone.
Local residents have complained to relevant authorities numerous times but the problem is ongoing.
Priority call for coastal forest planting to prevent flooding
Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung yesterday urged localities to complete protective forest plantations along coastal areas within three years.
Hung was speaking at a two-day conference to review steps to protect and upgrade the sea-dyke system from northern Quang Ninh Province to central Quang Nam Province.
The programme, approved by the Government and backed by investment of VND10 trillion ($526 billion), was supposed to have been completed by this year.
It aims to prevent flooding, including that caused by rises in sea levels, loss of life and property.
To hasten progress, Hung asked ministries and local authorities to promptly plan areas for plantation.
Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development show that more than 270km of dyke along the coastal areas have been upgraded, 42 drainage systems built and improved and 132ha of protective forest planted after five years of implementation.
Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat said important dykes in Hai Phong City, Hau Loc in Thanh Hoa Province and Ninh Binh Province had been consolidated.
He said protective forests had been planted along the Hai Phong and Thanh Hoa sea dykes.
Hai Phong City Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has reported that 3,000ha of plants have been planted and 16.3km of dykes concreted.
This amounts to 16 per cent of the 104km long dyke system around the coastal city.
Vice chairman of central Nghe An Province People’s Committee Nguyen Dinh Chi said six projects had already been completed and seven more wereon the way at a cost of $270 billion.
However, Hung said the achievements lagged behind schedule. Only 20 per cent of the total dykes were reported to have been upgraded, while more than 1,400km of dykes were in need of consolidation.
Many parts of the protective system were left untreated.
Capital invested so far is said to have reached only VND3 trillion ($157 billion), or 35 per cent of the target figure. At the present rate, it is estimated that it will take another 10 years to complete the programme.
Phat said his ministry would re-examine the dyke system to work out ways of combing dykes and roads.
Irrigation network leads to increase in farm production
Development of a proper irrigation network has helped farmers in the central province of Binh Thuan significantly expand farmlands and grow more crops.
Binh Thuan is one of the country’s driest localities with annual rainfall of 1,024 millimetres, just half the southern region’s average.
Districts in the north, including Bac Binh and Ham Thuan Bac, are the driest, while the south often gets heavy rains and floods.
To create a balance between the two regions, the province has actively developed an irrigation network.
Between 1985 and 2000, it built dozens of reservoirs, dams, and pumping stations that now irrigate 40 per cent of the province’s paddies. But they did not completely resolve the water scarcity problem.
Provincial authorities were determined to further expand the irrigation network by building new canals between the south and north.
In November 2006 the Binh Thuan Irrigation Work Exploitation Company built a nine-kilometre canal to bring water from the Luy River in the south to the Ca Giay reservoir in Bac Binh.
This now waters nearly 5,000 ha of rice fields in the district, ensuring production of winter-spring rice.
The next new irrigation work was the 33-km Chau Ta-812 canal, which carries water from the Song Quao lake to Bac Binh and Ham Thuan Bac, irrigating 4,500 ha.
According to the Binh Thuan Irrigation Branch, 80,000 ha of the province’s cultivable lands are now irrigated, up 54 per cent since 2005.
Bac Binh, the province’s driest spot, benefits most from these irrigation works.
The office said though total spending on the Ca Giay canal was just VND20 billion (US$1.05 million), it helps farmers in Bac Binh make a profit of VND1 million per ha per crop. The district makes a combined profit of VND100 billion.
Thanks to Chau Ta-812, farmers in Ham Thuan Bac have been able to increase their income by VND45 billion from the winter-spring rice crop.
More importantly, the office said, the development of the irrigation network has helped the province create an area growing high-value fruits like dragon fruit and green grape.
In addition to supplying water for farming and domestic use, the irrigation network has also created many kilometres of waterways and rural pathways linking localities, it said.
Pork becomes more popular
Viet Nam will increase its pig herds to 33.2 million from the present 8 million or so head by 2013, despite the ongoing epidemics, said Nguyen Thanh Son, deputy director of the Husbandry Department.
Son, attending a three-day national conference on domestic pig raising in Hai Phong, said that Viet Nam would boost the production of pork from the current 1 million tonnes to 3.9 million tonnes to serve the increasing demands of the country’s estimated 90 million people.
To achieve the plan, Son said the husbandry department should establish breeding farms in the Song Hong (Red River) Delta region and areas in the central Viet Nam.
He said pig raising was a traditional and important activity for Vietnamese farmers, who raised 75 to 81 per cent of the pork needed to serve domestic needs.
However, pig epidemics have caused losses in recent years. In late March, an outbreak of blue eared pig disease forced the culling of 100,000 pigs and left hundreds of thousands of local pork unsold.
Department data shows that there are between 130 to 140 large-scale breeding centres in the country with more than 300,000 of the country’s total 4.17 million sows.
Data also showed a sharp rise in the number of slaughterhouses in recent years, but that most of them use out-of-date technology. Among the total 970 houses in the nation, only 35 are equipped with modern equipment.
Better connections to breeding farms would help the modern slaughterhouses take full advantage of their potential, said Son.
Mai Huy Tan, general director of the Duc Viet Joint Stock Company, said it was necessary to clarify the responsibilities and tasks at every step of the husbandry process, from raising, processing, transportation and distribution.
He also said husbandry officials should provide more training to local farmers and force them to use modern pork production processes, including following the raising and slaughtering standards for clean and safe products.
Santanu K Bandyopadhyay, Senior Technical Co-ordinator of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), said many countries have been successful in controlling cattle epidemics because they have made the choice to prioritise supervision of the husbandry sector and manage trade.
Bandyopadhyay said FAO was ready to help Viet Nam with urgent and long-term support.
He said Viet Nam must increase its herds to meet increasing demand for clean pork in the next five years. He added that its farmers must not only increase the number of pigs they raise, but also the quality in which they raise them.
Bandyopadhyay said the pig farms, especially the small scale ones, should strengthen their hygiene practices such as washing their hands before feeding the pigs and separating pig and poultry raising areas.
PV
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