Vietnam Needs National Environment Health Action Plan: Experts

Vietnam is facing many threats on health from environmental pollutions which makes the authorities need to develop a National Environment Health Action Plan (NEHAP), the Sai Gon Giai Phong newspaper reported on June 29. The statement was made during a conference on “Management Consulting Environmental Health: Obstacles and Roadmap” held by Vietnam Public Health Association and Vietnam Environment Association on June 18. According to the World Health Organization, a NEHAP represents comprehensive, holistic and inter-sectoral way of planning and implementing environmental health action at the national level. According to the experts at the conference, Vietnam is facing many health threats including food safety, air pollution, management of trash (estimated at 29 million tons a year), communicable diseases, and water and farm land pollutions. Doctor Nguyen Huy Nga also pointed out that the country has only 85% of rural households have access to clean water, in which only over 40% have access to national standard clean water. Moreover, only 65% of rural households have hygiene toilets according to the Ministry of Health’ standards while nearly 4 million are still defecating in the open. Therefore, Vietnam needs to develop a NEHAP that includes warning levels on pollutions, suggestions on reducing harmful environmental effects, improvements of regulations on environment, and improvements of awareness among people over environment. According to the WHO, air pollution killed 800,000 people and shorten life expectancy of 4.6 million worldwide every year. Two-third of those who affected by air pollution live in developing countries. Indoor pollution is estimated to cause children to die early, especially in developing countries. Half of those children died under five due to pneumonia. Meanwhile, Vietnam is the only one in the ASEAN community not having a NEHAP. (Sai Gon Giai Phong – Liberated Saigon June 29 p8)