Ha Noi, (VNA) - Viet Nam's efforts to protect the environment have been encouraging, donors told the International Support Group for Natural Resources and Environment conference held in Ha Noi recently.

Tran Hong Ha, Director of the Department of Environment Protection under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, attributed the good performance to the effective implementation of the national plan on the environment and sustainable development in the 1991-2000 period.

He said that over recent years, Viet Nam has created the legal foundations for environmental protection activities, with a number of legal documents, such as the Law on Environment Protection, the Law on Land, the Law on Water Resources, and the Law on Minerals, coming into effect.

A series of measures have been taken to prevent environmental pollution, including producing reports on environmental impact, installing pollution-reduction equipment and waste treatment lines, and limiting the importation of used vehicles and machines.

Additionally, concerned agencies have taken prompt measures to timely tackle many environmental problems, including oil spills in the Sai Gon River. They have also examined and punished production entities causing pollution and mapped out detailed plans to treat particular organic substances.

In 2003, the Prime Minister approved a plan to examine and tackle heavily polluting production establishments by 2010. The approval of the plan was combined with the promulgation of an institutional tool to punish those establishments which violate the environmental safety rules and a decree to collect fees for discharged waste water.

Accordingly, provinces and cities nationwide examined and defined seriously-polluting production establishments. For example, Ho Chi Minh City has banned the 14 pollution causing industries from operating inside the city and has removed thousands of environmentally-polluting establishments from the city.

Practical projects to improve the environment in polluted areas have been underway in various localities and places across the country. They include a project to revamp the Thuong Dinh industrial complex in Ha Noi's western Thanh Xuan district, a project to combat land degradation in Central Highland Lam Dong province, and a project to treat air pollution and waste water in northern Quang Ninh province.

Additionally, projects to monitor the basin of major rivers and a master plan to develop Viet Nam's coastal areas have been carried out in an attempt to ensure sustainable development of the ecosystem.

Relevant agencies have paid due attention to environmental protection while planning urban areas and developing industrial zones.

Thanks to the Government's policy to encourage the planting of forests, the forest coverage nationwide has increased to 36 percent from 30 percent in late the 1980s and is likely to reach 40 percent by 2010.

However, how to protect the environment in the long term remains a headache to Viet Nam given the degradation of farming land and irreversible desertification are occuring rapidly and land erosion, landslides and salinisation can be seen in many places throughout the country. As a result, 50 percent of the total 33 million hectares of natural land is degrading.

Air pollution is also becoming an urgent problem, especially in urban areas and industrial zones, that needs to be promptly addressed.

For the time coming, the environmental sector will continue completing a legal system for land, natural resources, minerals, and the environment, and will bring into force regulations of the land law, the law on water resources, the law on minerals, and the law on environmental protection with the aim of reducing the rate of pollution and environmental degradation./.