Environment

The ban followed a request last month by Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai who is concerned about environmental pollution of the surroundings, including water supplies and good farm land.

The Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta should make efforts to control floods that are unseasonably early or too powerful to minimise damage and take advantage of the phenomenon for economic development, experts have said.

The World Bank (WB) will cooperate with Vietnam to ensure that progress made in living standards over past years continues and the country achieves sustainable economic development consistent with a Green Growth Strategy.

Hanoi needs about VND11 trillion (US$522.3 million) to implement a solid waste treatment plan to 2030 and with a vision towards 2050, which was signed by Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai.

Over 4,500 hectares of forest in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong have been being destroyed for years, while local authorities said they know nothing.

Vietnam has recorded 250 flash floods and landslides from 2000 through 2014, which left 646 dead or missing and 351 injuries nationwide, a report said.

A German-funded forestry programme in Vietnam has just been completed after nine years of implementation.

The authorities in Vietnam is trying to find ways to deal with 7,000 litres of toxic waste that have been stored near Halong Bay for seven years.

Hunted for generations for its tasty meat, the scaly-skinned pangolin is under threat in Gabon as demand for the small mammal surges in Asia, where it is used in traditional medicine.

Representatives from the Mekong Delta German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and Siemens gathered at a meeting on August 18 to discuss a project to enhance the region’s capacity to better cope with climate change.

Residents in seven districts of the central city have lacked clean water since last week as the salinity in Cau Do water plant –Da Nang's major water supply –reached an alarming high of 9.950mg per litre.

The Cuu Long Investment Joint Stock Company has been instructed to deal with 6,900 litres polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) transformer oil it has stored in a warehouse at Cai Lan Port since late 2007.

The central province of Quang Binh has received nearly US$1.5 million in donations from foreign non-governmental organisations for a project to protect biodiversity in the Dong Chau Forest - Nuoc Trong Ravine area during the 2014-2019 period.

Vietnam is home to a wide variety of rare primates species, but preservation efforts have been facing difficulties.

The Ministry of Information and Communications and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have issued a stamp set “Vietnamese Primates” on the occasion of the 25th Congress of the International Primatological Society hosted by Vietnam.

Elephant numbers are falling rapidly in Dak Lak Province and local authorities are struggling to protect the giant animals from the threat of extinction.

Bui Van Can, from Quynh Luu district, Nghe An province and his fellow crewmembers caught a rare giant ocean sunfish in the Gulf of Tonkin waters.

Nearly 700 households in a commune in Quang Binh Province have been without access to clean water for years due to alum contamination.

HCM City customs officers on August 6 announced they seized three African elephant tusks sent from France to Danang city, with an estimated cost of VND3 billion (nearly US$150,000).