Tougher stance needed on toxic waste imports ....

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Tougher stance needed on toxic waste imports ....

Tougher stance needed on toxic waste imports

Published on : September 14th, 2011

Toxic and industrial waste dumping has increased in recent years due to the lenient punishments given to the violators, according to the Environment Police Department.

Statistics from the department showed that since 2006, there had been 200 cases of toxic waste imports, mainly toxic industrial waste and rusty machinery.

Nguyen Xuan Ly, head of the Environment Police Department, said that this was a new kind of crime in which the importers declared at customs that these are materials for production, but they are in fact toxic waste.

The most recent case of this was commited by northeastern Quang Ninh Province's Vu Hai Company which imported more than 63,000 tonnes of waste lead battery. However, it declared to customs officials that it was lead ore.

Ly said that the violators took advantage of a loop-hole in the laws related to environmental protection.

Hoang Minh Son, head of the Environment General Department's Policy and Legal Department said that the state had yet to have legal definition for the standards of used machinery and equipment being imported into Viet Nam. Many enterprises also had the right to exemption from inspection at customs by falsely declaring their products leading to only 5-10 per cent being checked.

Nevertheless, when these cases were discovered, only an administrative fine of VND70 million (US$3,800) which could be raised to VND500 million ($27,000) in the amended environment protection law, was charged.

Ly said that this punishment was much lower than the billions of dong they got from importing the waste.

Luong Minh Thao, deputy head of the Environment Police Department said that to improve this, the department would revise the laws on punishment levels related to the environment and technical standards for used machinery imported into the country.

The ministries of Public Security, Natural Resources and Environment and Border Guards plan to co-operate, exchange information and check products related to industrial waste in the future.

The Ministry of Public Security will work with Interpol and other countries' environmental police to prevent and combat such crime.

Source: VNS

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