Thursday, September 22, 2011

Youth take part in environmental protection

The Vietnam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment (VACNE) and the Vietnam Youth Federation (VYF) signed an agreement for a joint programme for youth participation in protecting the environmental and dealing with climate change in the 2011-2016 period on March 13.

Accordingly, the two agencies will cooperate to launch a campaign to encourage rural young people to get involved in creating a green, clean, and beautiful environment, and raise awareness of dealing with climate change.

Both sides will also start a “Vietnamese youth for environment” column on VACNE’s website and VYF’s information portal.

Forest fires threaten many localities

Prolonged droughts had put 16 provinces nationwide on level five forest fire alert, the highest warning level, warned the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Department of Forest Management.

Southern Tay Ninh and Long An provinces and the Central Highlands Dak Nong Province were at a particularly high risk, according to the department.

Additionally, ten other provinces have been listed at level four warning levels.

The Central Steering Committee for Forest Fire Prevention and Fighting has instructed People's Committees and forest owners in these localities to immediately take preventive measures.

Pumping station ‘a waste of money': official

Poor residents in Thanh Duc Commune in central Nghe An Province are calling for the demolition of a VND1.4 billion (US$70,000) pumping station that has been unused for years.

Thai Doan Bang, the commune People's Committee chairman, said the pumping station was built with State funds for disadvantaged localities. It became operational in 2006 and was designed to irrigate 30ha of paddy fields in the commune.

However, he said local farmers shifted to growing tea, which requires less water than rice. In addition, deforestation has affected the pumping station's water supply.

"There is not enough water to pump. Over the last year, the station and its network of pipes have been utterly redundant," Bang said, adding that the project had been a huge waste of money.

Local resident Trinh Xuan My said the money should have been spent on improving roads in the commune, many of which are unsurfaced.

Other residents said the project had been ill thought out and badly planned.

Adding to villagers' woes is the above-ground 40cm diameter irrigation pipeline that stretches 400 metres across farmland.

The pipeline is one metre above ground and a major obstacle for local farmers.

Nguyen Huu Vinh, chairman of Thanh Chuong District People's Committee, said officials from the district authority had inspected the station and were awaiting a decision from higher authorities before taking action.

Viet Nam to face fresh water shortages by 2050

As many as 8.4 million Vietnamese people would suffer from clean water shortages by 2050 because of climate change, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Viet Nam is one of the five countries most seriously affected by climate change. Millions of hectares of land would be flooded and dozens of millions of residents would lose their houses as sea water rises, said experts from the bank.

The effects of climate change has been affecting water levels in both rural and urban areas. In recent years, water levels in the Mekong River have risen by 41 per cent in the rainy season, but dropped by 24 per cent in the dry season.

More than 70 per cent of the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta is saline, with concentration levels of more than four grammes of salt per litre of water.

Due to rising sea levels, up to 0.3-0.5 million hectares of land in the Red River Delta, 0.4 million hectares in Central areas and 1.5-2 million hectares of land in the Mekong Delta would be flooded, the bank warned.
PT_Source: VNN/VOV/VNS

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