The northern province of Bac Ninh will require its polluting guild villages to adopt adequate waste treatment methods and facilities or move the trade to industrial zones. Polluting enterprises will not only be subject to administrative punishments, but can also have their business licenses revoked. These are among several measures that provincial authorities mention in a recent regulation that they have passed in an attempt to improve environmental protection in the province, said Nguyen Tu Quynh, Vice Chairman of the Bac Ninh People's Committee. The new regulation requires owners of businesses, production and investment projects to make environmental protection plans at the same time as they conduct feasibility studies and submit them to authorized agencies. It also requires firms to apply advanced technology in production and business activities, classify different kinds of waste and take steps to store and treat them according to prescribed standards. Quynh said that industrial zones in particular are required to build waste treatment facilities before discharging waste and allocate specific areas for the storage and transport of solid and harmful waste. The province is set to have 24 industrial zones covering 739ha by 2020. It will focus on completely ending environmental pollution at six high-risk guild villages that specialize in waste paper recycling, rice vermicelli production, aluminum and steel recycling and bronze casting. Guild villages not certified to have standard waste treatment methods will be required to move to industrial zones or have their operations suspended. At present, the province has 62 guild villages, most of which are suffering from serious air, water and land pollution. The province targets having all these villages meet environmental protection requirements by 2030. (Vietnam News June 23)
