Agricultural production has been witnessing the stable growth rate of 4.5 percent per annum. However, scientists have warned that the production activities have also generated negative impacts on the environment and threatened the sustainable development.

A recent survey conducted by the Institute for Water, Irrigation and the Environment under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development showed that with 70 percent of population living in rural areas, about 13 million tons of domestic waste, 1300 million cubic meters of domestic waste water and 7500 tons of the of packs of plant protection chemicals are generated every year.

Meanwhile, the institute has pointed out that 80 percent of domestic garbage, domestic waste water and most of the packs for putting chemicals have not been collected for treatment, and they have been thrown into the environment.

Hanoi, though considered as one of the localities which have got satisfactory achievements in the environment protection, still cannot meet the requirements in waste treatment. 

At present, Hanoi discharges 5371 tons of solid waste to the environment per day, including 2500 tons from rural areas.

The survey has found out that rubbish collection cooperatives have been set up in 355 out of 424 communes. The domestic waste from 143 communes has been carried to the city’s concentrated rubbish dumps for treatment. However, the number just amounts to 40 percent of the total existing communes, and most of them are located in towns and the communes near the inner city’s area. Meanwhile, in remote communes, it is very difficult to collect garbage.

Animal husbandry generates 50,000 tons of waste a day, while craft villages discharge big amounts of solid waste, which all have polluted the environment seriously.

Dr Vu Thi Huong from the Institute of Water, Irrigation and the Environment said that though rubbish collection cooperatives have been existing in rural areas, they are just spontaneous service organizations; therefore, they prove to be unsustainable.

In urban areas, environment service companies are state owned enterprises for the public interest. 80 percent of the expenses for running the enterprises have been provided by the State budget, while people only have to pay the other 20 percent. Meanwhile, in rural areas, the rubbish collection activities have been funded by the people’s money.

Huong also said that protecting the environment is yet become a habit of local residents. A lot of movements to call on the community to join forces to treat waste have been raised. However, the events only occur at different moments, while they are far from becoming regular activities. While localities’ village conventions set strict regulations about weddings, funerals and new healthy ways of life, the conventions do not mention the regulations on waste management and environment protection.

Agricultural production has been put under a hard pressure due to the earth, water environment pollution, while the quality of farm produce has decreased due to the plant protection chemical overuse. Ignoring the warnings by scientists, farmers still have been abusing chemicals during the production and they do not intend to follow any plans to protect the environment.

The institute, which conducted a survey on the 30 models of rubbish collection in 10 provinces in the north, has found out that only two localities once ran the program to collect plant protection chemical packs. However, the plan failed completely due to the lack of money. Meanwhile, local people thought that the packs are just a kind of normal rubbish, and they don’t care about where they should put the packs after use.

Source: Ha noi moi/ VNN