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Social News 13/8
Ben
Tre: Serious pollution at Phu Hung garbage dump
Open-air untreated garbage in Phu Hung dump in the southern
Piles
of untreated garbage in Phu Hung dump in the southern
The
open-air garbage dump covering an area of 52,000 sq. m in the Phu Hung
Commune has been receiving a large amount of garbage from Ben Tre city for
more than 20 years with no provision to keep it separated from the inhabited
area around it.
Local
residents complained that this has led to extremely miserable conditions in
which they are forced to live.
In the
rainy season, water from the dump floods the road and flows down to the
nearby Thuong Phe Binh channel, polluting the water source. During the sunny
season, the stench affects the lives of hundreds of households in nearby Huu
Dinh and Phuoc Thanh communes, they said.
Since
it has been receiving trash and waste from Ben Tre city, some boder districts
and two industrial zones, namely Hiep An and Giao Long, the garbage dump
became overloaded long ago.
Doan
Thanh Phong, chairman of Huu Dinh Commune's People's Committee spoke on Lao
Dong (Labour) Newspaper that the local residents had repeatedly recommended
measures should be implemented to protect the environment, but the garbage
dump was too large and so the pollution continued unabated.
HCMC
launches online service to grant passports in 8 days
People
in
The
Immigration Division, under the municipal Police Department, on Tuesday put
to use a website at xnc.catphcm.bocongan.gov.vn to help people carry out
procedures related to passports.
Accordingly,
Vietnamese citizens with a registered permanent residence or long-term
temporary residence, or agencies and businesses who meet conditions for
applying for passports or passport replacements on behalf of their employees,
can take relevant steps at the said website.
The
site provides notices, instructions and the process for declarations
necessary for a passport or replacement.
With
this online service, people can apply for passports or passport replacements
anywhere with an Internet connection, said Colonel Nguyen Van Anh, head of
the division.
This
online service also helps minimize errors that may be committed by applicants
when they make manual declarations, Col. Anh said
Three
hours after applicants complete an online declaration, all their declared
information will be transmitted to the division, the official added.
When
applicants later visit the division to present their passport dossiers, they
will be granted a priority number and a form confirming receipt of the
documents.
After
getting the form, applicants can register with the post for a service with
which their passport will be delivered to their home or office address.
Twelve
hours after submitting their passport dossiers, applicants can search for
information on the results of their passport application at the above
website, or they can receive this information through SMS messaging or voice
mail box services.
This
new service helps shorten the passport-granting duration from the current 15
days to eight days, Col. Anh said, adding that it conforms with the ongoing
administrative reform for the sake of the public.
The
Immigration Division is located at
Fisheries
funds fall short in Quang Ngai
A
shortage of funds has slowed down the completion of projects to improve
fishery sector infrastructure in central
Resolution
67 promulgated in July last year approved a total of 13 projects to improve
the fisheries in the province. The total estimated budget is VND2 trillion
(US$91.7 million).
Two
important projects include the building of an anchorage on Ly Son island and
a logistics centre in
The
Government has only allocated a part of fund to the two projects. The
shortage has caused a headache for the local authorities, Phan Huy Hoang,
deputy director of the
In
mid-July last year, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved State budget
funds for the second phase of an anchorage project in Ly Son island.
The
project aims to complete a shelter for about 500 fishing vessels to ride out
severe storms.
The
ministries of planning and investment, and finance said they would earmark
the money for the province to realise the scheme in 2014-15.
The
estimated budget for the project (second phase) is VND400 billion ($18.3
million). However, the Government has only allocated VND30 billion until now.
Because
of the shortage, the Sa Ky logistics centre has only been 85 per cent
completed. Hundreds of workers have had to be temporarily laid off.
Boat
owners in Pho Thanh commune in coastal Duc Pho district are worried they will
not be able to find a place to anchor during storms because of this.
High
costs blamed for low LED usage
Few
alternatives to replace broken parts of LED (light-emitting diode) lighting
products is making it difficult to install the products in
Vice
chairman of the Viet Nam Lighting Association and director of the HCM City
Public Lighting Ltd Company Huynh Tri Dung made the statement while
addressing the limited use of LED lighting at a conference on Tuesday.
Dung
said that LED lighting had improved, but it was difficult to find
alternatives when the products broke.
He
said that a high number of LED bulbs used on
According
to the HCM City Energy Conservation Centre, the city used 102,500 bulbs for
public lighting, but only 1,200 LED lights. The others were high-pressure
mercury and high pressure sodium light bulbs.
The
city spends about VND130 billion (US$5.9 million ) a year using about 90
million kWh for public lighting.
If the
city replaced all its high-pressure mercury (HPM) and high pressure sodium
(HPS) light bulbs with LEDs which have a capacity between 65W and 200W, it
could save over 55 million kWh per year or VND88 billion ($3.99 million), and
reduce the emission of 31 tonnes of CO2 into the environment.
Dung
said that street lights in the city were designed to use HPM and HPS bulbs,
adding that current lamp-posts were incompatible with LEDs.
He
said that besides energy saving, the installation of LED lighting was costly.
"It's
difficult to attract the private sector to invest in public lighting,"
he said.
Director
of the HCM City Energy Conservation Centre, Huynh Kim Tuoc, said there were
various LED lighting products on the market, but careful consideration was
needed to select the right one for the city.
Takehiro
Ogawa, acting director of International Affairs of Ogawa Denki Co., Ltd from
More
companies are expected to engage in public lighting projects if they are
supported by banks.
Prudential
Vietnam builds kindergarten in Ha Giang
Construction
on three classrooms of a kindergarten located in Can Chu Phin commune, Meo
Vac district, northern mountainous province of Ha Giang began on August 12
thanks to 1.4 billion VND (65,116 USD) in donations from Prudential Life
Insurance.
The
construction is part of the programme “Cung xay tuong lai” (Building the
future together), co-organised by Prudential, Plan
He
added that some 18 kindergartens will be constructed nationwide between
2014-2025 under the 24.6-billion-VND (1.14 million USD) programme.
Meo
Vac district is among the six most impoverished localities of the province
with over 80 percent of its population being ethnic minorities. The area is
prone to natural calamities such as landslides and flooding all year round.
The
district’s education sector is facing serious difficulties with pre-school
students studying in dilapidated house and a lack of learning facilities.
Solutions
to Vietnamese language training overseas
A
collection of Vietnamese language learning materials designed for overseas
Vietnamese (OV)were handed over to attendees at a seminar held in Hanoi on
August 12.
Attending
the event were over 40 instructors who teach Vietnamese language classes for
OV from 25 countries and territories and top lecturers and professionals in
the Vietnamese linguistic training sector.
Addressing
the event, Head of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese Affairs Vu
Hong
According
to a representative from the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET),
popularising Vietnamese language among OV is essential. The language has been
taught at schools in
The
ministry has yet to publish any set of official textbooks designed for OV
communities, leaving some places to use domestic textbooks like “Tieng Viet
Vui” (Fun Vietnamese) or “Que Viet” (Viet motherland) for teaching.
Participants
discussed specific methods of teaching and learning Vietnamese language
adopted by particular foreign regions and proposed ways for effective
training.
The
event was co-hosted by the State Committee for OV Affairs and MoET.
Over
sixty commercial projects shift to social housing
Sixty-two
commercial-housing projects with 41,769 apartments in total has registered to
be social-housing projects all over the country so far, according to the
Ministry of Construction.
Of the
62,
Another
19 projects in the capital city are being considered for entrance into the
programme.
The
city is examining 12 other projects for the purpose.
Becoming
a social-housing project helps housing projects sell their apartments
quickly, given that customers who buy flats in the projects have access to
low-interest rate loans from the Government’s 30-trillion-VND (1.38 billion
USD) credit package.-
New
policy helps upgrade houses for those in need
The
Prime Minister has issued a decision on housing support policies for
impoverished households living below the poverty line for 2011-2015,
targeting about 311,000 rural families.
Beneficiaries
are those listed in the poverty line delimitation in Decision 09/2011/QD-TTg
dated January 30, 2011 and include those with an unsettled, broken or
dilapidated house without the ability to upgrade it and who have yet to be
supported by any State programmes or organisations.
Families
that have received housing assistance from other programmes and policies will
also get support if their houses have collapsed or are at risk of collapsing
due to disasters such as floods, storms, earthquakes and fires.
Those
who received aid anywhere between eight years ago and October 1, 2015 and own
a degraded house will also be supported.
According
to the decision, households living in wards, towns or cities with their main
livelihoods in agriculture, forestry or fishery sectors will be targets of
programme support.
Priority
will be given to families in extreme difficulty and those from ethnic
minority groups, frequently disaster-affected areas and exceptionally
impoverished villages and districts.
Beneficiary
households will have access to preferential loans up to 25 million VND (1,147
USD) each to build or upgrade their homes.-
Soc
Trang community backs AO victim lawsuit in France
As
much as 120 million VND (5,400 USD) raised by people in the southern province
of Soc Trang was handed over to French-Vietnamese Tran To Nga on August 12 to
support her lawsuit against US chemical companies to seek justice for Agent
Orange (AO)/dioxin victims.
Nga,
who spent 5 years collecting legal and scientific evidence for the process,
expressed her gratitude for the assistance, saying it urges her to pursue the
case to its finality.
She
said she hopes Vietnamese people will continue to back her.
The
Vietnam Association of Victims of AO/dioxin (VAVA) has launched a series of
campaigns nationwide to call for support for Nga’s lawsuit.
VAVA
has so far mobilised over 25,000 EUR for the lawsuit. It also sent open
letters to the Crown Court of Evry city in the suburb of Paris and lawyers
requesting an expedient trial.
Nga,
who is now 73, became a war correspondent of the Liberation News Agency after
graduating from a
Nga
suffers from numerous diseases as a consequence of her exposure to AO/dioxin,
many of which have been recognised by the
Among
her three children, the first child died of heart defects while the second
suffered from a blood disease.
In
2009, Nga appeared as a witness at the Court of Public Opinion in
In May
2014, she filed a lawsuit against 26
The
complaint and related documents were handed over to the Crown Court and the
26
The
Paris-based William Bourdon Forestier law firm is representing Nga in the
lawsuit.
From
1961-1971, US troops sprayed more than 80 million litres of herbicides—44
million litres of which were AO containing nearly 370 kilograms of dioxin—over
southern Vietnam.
As a
result, around 4.8 million Vietnamese were exposed to the toxic chemical.
Many of the victims have died and millions of their descendants are living
with deformities and diseases as a direct result of the chemical’s effects.
Phu
Tho invests 256 bln VND in pump station
The
Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in the
The
station has total investment capital of 256 billion VND (11.9 million USD)
sourced from Indian official development assistance (ODA) and the
The
station, constructed by the Kirloskar Brothers Limited from
Once
completed at the end of 2016, the project will facilitate drainage for 5,367
hectares of land in Truc Ninh district and Viet Tri city.
According
to Chu Ngoc Anh, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, the station
will contribute to stabilising agricultural production, preventing floods and
ensuring food safety in the locality.
Central
province taps renewable energy sources
Central
Thua Thien-
Thua
Thien-Hue has put four hydropower plants into operation with a combined capacity
of 314.5 megawatts (MW) and contributing over 1 billion kilowatt hours (kWh)
to the national grid every year.
Another
two hydropower factories with respective capacities of 7.2 MW and 6 MW are
expected to be operational by the end of this year.
Solar powered
equipment has also been installed at local hotels, including the Saigon Morin
Hotel which has used solar water heating for several years. As the hotel
consumes around 14,000 litres of water a day, it could save 50 million VND
(over 2,260 USD) in its monthly electricity bill or over 600 million VND
(27,340 USD) a year.
Several
road light systems in Thua Thien-Hue have also benefited from this source of
energy. Solar powered lamp posts have the capacity to continuously illuminate
roads over the course of four or five rainy evenings. Each of these
facilities will save 438 kWh of electricity a year compared to a high
pressure sodium lamp.
Meanwhile,
biogas tanks have become popular as a way to utilise gas produced during the
decay of garbage as a burning fuel. Notably, Thuy Xuan ward of
Director
of the provincial Department of Industry and Trade said Thua Thien-Hue holds
a vast biogas potential. Biogas energy is a useful fuel source that is key to
protecting the rural environment, as 80 percent of Thua Thien-Hue lives in
rural areas with concentrated livestock farming.
The
province is devising support policies to facilitate the use of renewable
energy sources, he noted, adding that concrete aid will be provided for local
households to build thousands of biogas tanks in the near future.
Exhibition
on 100 years of transport in Can Tho opens
An
exhibition on 100 years of transportation in Can Tho city was launched in the
Mekong Delta city on August 12, displaying more than 200 documents, objects
and models.
The
exhibit introduces the whole picture of transport development in Can Tho
since the beginning of the 20th century, when water ways were the city’s
primary means of transport, to today with roads replacing water ways as the
main travel method.
The
display will last until December 2015.
Publications
on show to mark National Day
More
than 600 publications, many of which are books and newspapers addressing
national unity, the August Revolution, and the birth of the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam, are on display in Hanoi marking the forthcoming 70th
anniversary of National Day (September 2).
Colonel
Luong Van Dung, deputy director of the
This
is also a way to show our gratitude to our predecessors who fell for national
independence, he noted.
Patients
to be paid health insurrance on holidays
One of
the most important of the inter-ministerial circular is that patients will
enjoy health insurance when they go to medical facilities for examination and
treatment on holidays or Saturdays, Sundays.
The
ministries of Health and Finance have just issued the circular which patients
will be paid by health insurance company when they go to hospitals for
examination and treatment on holidays or Saturdays, Sundays.
Only
big hospitals are allowed to open for examination and treatment activities on
Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.
Also
as per the circular, the medical facilities which open for examination and
treatment activities on holidays and Saturdays, Sundays must report to the
social insurance company to benefit the patients.
Medical
facilities must ensure enough personnel for these activities on holidays as
well as publicize the charges which patients must pay in addition to the
payment the insurance company pays.
The
circular takes effect from the upcoming first of September.
Source: VNA/VNS/VOV/SGT/SGGP/TT/TN/Dantri
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Thứ Tư, 12 tháng 8, 2015
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