Industrial Pollution: Turning Things Around

Ngo Duc Hao owns a small family-run paper recycling plant in the village of Phong Khe, in Bac Ninh, in northern Vietnam. Recently, he decided to insulate the coal-fired burner that powers his machinery and make the plant's roof more leakproof.

These simple measures resulted in an appreciable reduction in the plant's harmful air pollutants and in less paper loss due to rain. They had the additional benefit of improving the business's profitability by reducing the amount of coal required to produce a given quantity of paper.

Ngo Duc Hao and several other plant owners in Vietnam listened carefully to the advice of environmental experts who visited their facilities looking for ways to cut down on pollution from their operations. The solutions proposed by the experts were, for the most part, quickly implemented.

Vietnam has been growing at a phenomenal rate since the adoption, in the late 1980s, of reforms that have stimulated its economy. The industrial sector, which is growing by 15 percent per year, is the principal driving force behind the country's development. It is also the principal polluter: air pollutants, contaminants dumped into waterways, and hazardous wastes can cause serious environmental damage.

The Vietnamese people are becoming increasingly aware of the consequences of industrial pollution and they want to turn things around.

Since 1996, Vietnamese authorities both at the national and provincial levels have been working to improve industrial pollution management. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is providing support in this area under an innovative project now being implemented in nine of the country's provinces.

Together, the Vietnamese authorities and CIDA have been working on developing plans and policies to curb industrial pollution. The partners recognize that pollution is a complex problem, requiring the attention of many groups and individuals. The project has therefore been developing linkages among government departments, private enterprises, and communities to seek solutions. The visits by experts to the paper recycling plant were one outcome of this collaboration.

The project has also been working to build technical capacity among government authorities by training personnel and setting up analytical laboratories, for example.

Dinh Xuan Hung, senior official with Vietnam's Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, closely monitored this project in his role as national coordinator.

"Our collaborative efforts with Canada have yielded highly positive results," he says with enthusiasm. "Most important has been the change in attitude toward the environment that we have seen among political and government authorities in Vietnam. They now believe in the need to protect the environment, and they eagerly support efforts to do so."

These efforts made have led to greater transparency among organizations responsible for environmental management. As a result of the project, Vietnam's Department of Natural Resources and the Environment now has a more open, participative, and results-oriented style of management.

Canada was one of the first countries to give Vietnam substantial support in the area of environmental governance and, thanks to the solid cooperation between the two countries, efforts to curb industrial pollution and thus protect the environment are still going strong today.