To elevate environment protection

After 5 years (2016-2020) implementing the environmental protection plan, the environmental protection in Binh Duong has achieved many results, creating positive changes, raising people's awareness and having strong impacts on development, making an important contribution to the construction of an increasingly civilized and modern urban area.

In years, the connection to waste water treatment system has been promoted to treat urban waste water. In this photo: Connection of household to waste water treatment system is being done by Thu Dau Mot Establishment of Wastewater Treatment

The construction of civilized urbanity

Urban domestic wastewater is considered the main source of wastewater pollution at present. The speed of population growth is mechanically fast, so the amount of domestic wastewater in the province has increased dramatically, which has been estimated at 226,608 cubic meters per day (increasing by nearly 1.6 times compared to 2015 which was about 142,816 cubic meters per day). To solve the problem, the province has prioritized resources from the State budget and ODA loans in the past 5 years to implement wastewater collection and treatment projects. Investments have been established to construction of Thuan An Urban Wastewater Treatment Plant (capacity of 17,000 cubic meters per day), Di An Urban Wastewater Treatment Plant (capacity of 20,000 cubic meters per day). Procedures to increase capacity of Thu Dau Mot Urban Wastewater Treatment Plant (capacity from 17,650 cubic meters per day to 35,000 cubic meters per day) has been formulated; at the same time, many drainage projects to increase drainage capacity has been implemented to limit flooding, especially in densely populated areas.

In addition, the province has issued regulations on the management and protection of road traffic infrastructure, urban lighting, drainage, and urban greenery in the province including public support policies to connect wastewater to urban wastewater collection and treatment systems. Up to now, about 70% of urban domestic wastewater generated in the province has been collected and treated.

The amount of generated solid waste has increased significantly over the past 5 years due to changes in people's lifestyles and rapid industrialization and urbanization. The total volume of domestic solid waste in the province by 2020 was about 2,102 tons per day - an increase of nearly 2 times from 2015. The majority of domestic solid waste has not been classified at source (currently piloted in some areas in the province); waste recovery rate of recyclable and reusable scrap paper, metal, plastic etc. is low and mostly spontaneous.

Tran Thanh Quang, Director of Environmental Protection Division, said: “Over the past time, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment has coordinated with People's Committees of Thu Dau Mot city, Thuan An city, Di An city, Ben Cat Town, and a number of related units to implement many activities such as organizing the launching ceremony to implement the pilot plan of classifying domestic solid waste at source; to organize conferences to deploy regulations on solid waste management in the province; to pilot waste separation at source on some streets, quarters and some densely populated areas in the province.”

Some localities have changed many hot spots for dumping waste or polluting landfills into green patches and local beauty spots, creating urban beauty. In particular, Thu Dau Mot city now has no spontaneous waste gathering points.

Environment quality improved

Implementing the environmental protection plan for 2021-2025, Binh Duong focuses on building environmental protection plans in the planning of Binh Duong province for 2021-2030 with a vision to 2050. Environmental zoning with orientation activities appropriate with socio-economic development is to establish a mechanism to control and prevent development activities affecting the environment in each region. In addition, the province categorizes new investment projects according to their level of impact on the environment right from the time of environmental impact assessment to control throughout the life cycle of the project. Preliminary environmental impact assessments are conducted for projects with high levels of environmental pollution. Inspection and certification of the completion of environmental protection works have been strengthened before the project goes into trial and official operations.

Tran Thanh Quang added that the next time the province will continue to focus on improving and elevating the quality of the environment by solving pressing environmental problems including the classification of solid waste at sources according to the nature and treatment method to promote reduction, reuse and recycling. Equipment will be modernized and station system to boost collection of urban daily-life solid waste is transferred to expand the solid waste collection service network in rural areas and to encourage the application of waste treatment technologies in combination with energy recovery; programs against plastic waste are effectively implemented. Nature and biodiversity are conserved to promote environmental protection in the exploitation and use of natural resources.

Reported by Phuong Le – Translated by Vi Bao

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