vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn  

HA NOI — Viet Nam is hoping to learn from the international experience of environmental protection in developing countries, as it strives to get its environment policies back on track.

Experts have warned that national programmes are being implemented at too slow a rate, and some targets are not being met.

They also say that environmental laws and regulations are not being properly enforced, and have called attention to forest destruction and the overuse of insecticides.

Environmentalists are calling for the establishment of a National Council for Sustainable Development, and the implementation of National Agenda 21, which would flesh out the commitments arising from the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro.

Already, at least 70 nations have set their own Agenda 21 action plan, based on the international blueprint devised at the conference.

This typically involves setting up a national council for sustainable development to carry out and monitor the action plan.

At the Rio Conference, Viet Nam put forward its own views on ecologically sustainable development and made a strong commitment to ensure that it takes place within this country.

The Vietnamese delegation also expressed its eagerness to work with and learn from foreign countries.

Viet Nam has signed and ratified the Rio Conference’s convention on biological diversity and the UN frame convention on global warming.

Several countries have reached an agreement on implementing the two Rio conventions, where one of the most important issues was a reduction in the use of ozone-depleting substances.

In May 2001, the Stockholm Conference passed the Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants that aims to prevent, control and eliminate these substances. Viet Nam has recently signed and ratified this convention.

But few countries have responded to the Rio Conference’s call for developed countries to increase their official development assistance (ODA) to 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Apart from the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden, who either reach or exceed this rate, other developed countries grant just 0.1-0.4 per cent of GDP.

Fresh action, new challenges

Viet Nam has responded to the growing strength of the world-wide green movement by setting up the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, and passing an Environment Law in December 1993.

Viet Nam has also implemented the National Plan on Environment and Sustainable Development 1991-2000; an Action Plan on Biological Diversity; and a National Programme on reducing Ozone-Depleting Substances.

The next step is to approve and carry out the National Programme on Climate Change.

The Government Forestry Programme 327 has increased forest cover to 32 per cent of barren hills, up from 23 per cent in the early 1980s.

An area of nature reserves and national parks of 1 million hectares in the early 1990s has soared to over 2 million hectares, making up 6 per cent of the country’s territory.

Several polluting industrial plants, such as the Ninh Binh Thermo-electric Plant and Hai Phong Cement Plant have been either upgraded or closed to ensure environmental safety.

The Government has expended huge sums of money, much of which has come from ODA loans, to upgrade urban infrastructure facilities, including water supply and drainage networks.

A clean water supply programme in the countryside has been underway for over two decades and has helped 46 per cent of the rural population access clean drinking water in 2001, up from 8 per cent in 1970s.

But according to the Ministry of Health, up to 51.7 per cent of the country’s population suffers from diseases directly related to poor environmental conditions.

These include parasitic infections, skin and eye diseases and acute respiratory infections.

Children are the most seriously affected, particularly by diarrhoeal and parasitic diseases caused by poor water quality and a lack of adequate sanitation facilities.

The United Nations Childrens’ Fund (UNICEF) has reported that only one-third of Vietnamese people living in the countryside have access to adequate sanitation facilities.

In poorer, ethnic minority areas, this number is even lower. Only 17 per cent of people who have access to sanitation know how to properly use their facilities.

The United Nations Environment Protection (UNEP) agency has chosen Give the earth a chance as its theme for this year’s Environment Day, which fell on Wednesday.

In Viet Nam, environmentalists are urging people not to miss any chances to do what they can for the world around them. — VNS