Industrial clusters face environmental challenges

The 33 ICs cover an area of about 1,416ha, housing over 300 secondary investment projects, with occupancy rates averaging over 62 percent. Among 15 ICs that have reports on environmental impacts approved by the Provincial People’s Committee, only five have infrastructure investors.

“As 32 out of 33 local ICs do not have concentrated wastewater treatment systems, enterprises had to build wastewater treatment systems by themselves,” said Deputy Director of Hai Duong’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment Do Tien Dung. “Results of monitoring and analysis of environmental parameters of surface water quality in drainage ditches showed most of them had signs of pollution.”

Luong Dien IC is one of the five industrial clusters in Hai Duong that have an infrastructure investor

To solve the problem, Hai Duong Provincial People’s Committee has assigned the local Department of Industry and Trade to formulate a draft regulation on management of ICs, which clearly defines responsibilities and coordination mechanism between departments, sectors and district-level People’s Committees, along with other solutions to solve problems for the ICs that do not have infrastructure investors. The draft would also include regulations on management and operation of technical infrastructure for environmental protection at ICs, and on responsibilities of the major infrastructure investor and secondary investors.

The provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment also strengthened inspections of adherence to legal regulations on environmental protection by enterprises and investors in the ICs. In 2020 and 2021, the agency inspected 30 secondary investors in the ICs and detected, handled or recommended handling violations such as false reports to competent agencies on the generation and management of hazardous waste, lack of certificates on completion of environmental protection work, improper implementation of environmental impact requirements and discharging wastewater into the environment in excess of technical regulations on waste, Do Tien Dung said.

The local Department of Natural Resources and Environment will continue to strengthen the capacity of monitoring equipment to track water and air quality, maintain and expand the periodic environmental monitoring network to promptly detect signs of pollution, identify causes and handle violations or recommend appropriate measures to control emission sources.