Environment

Vietnam needs approximately US$8.3 billion to provide adequate drainage services for estimated 36 million people in urban areas by 2025, said Le Duy Hung, senior urban management expert.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has asked the Government to issue an order to stop the exploitation of natural forests in the Central Highlands region between now and 2020.

The third meeting of the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting Plus (ADMM Plus) working group on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief was held yesterday in Vietnam's coastal central province of Khanh Hoa.

The US Agency for International Development and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on January 16 launched a US$26 million climate change project in Nam Dinh province.

The People’s Committee of the central province of Thua Thien-Hue on January 16 decided to spend 46 billion VND (2.162 million USD) from the State and locality’s budget to help its localities overcome damage caused by the 2013 floods.

A 6.28 million USD project to improve sanitation and hygiene in Bac Giang, Thai Nguyen, Binh Dinh and Ben Tre provinces commenced in Hanoi on January 16.

China, Korea and Japan have been placed in the firing line of powerful tropical cyclones by a warming of water in the western Pacific, according to a three-decade study published on Thursday.

Another strong cold spell that dramatically brought the temperature down to 1-2 degree Celsius has hit the lives of ethnic and minority people in the northern province of Ha Giang.

Dong Van and Meo Vac border districts in the northernmost province of Ha Giang reportedly saw widespread snowfall on the night of January 12, with temperatures dropping to minus one degree Celsius.

For several years, thousands of residents in the Yen Binh district in the northern province of Yen Bai have endured significant pollution generated by a local cassava starch processing factory.

The Central Steering Committee for Forest Fire Prevention and Protection has alerted local authorities and citizens in six provinces of the high risk of forest fires during this dry season.

A communication campaign has been launched in the northern province of Quang Ninh in a bid to raise public awareness about the need to protect bears during the first tourism months of 2014.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Cao Duc Phat, recently instructed citizens to prevent forest fires and urged them to make it a top priority during this dry season.

Pollution in the Dong Nai River killed tonnes of fish in Bien Hoa City in the past few days, according to local authorities.

A community-based programme has been carried out to successfully protect the fish and animal life in 10 zones totalling 307 hectares of Tam Giang – Cau Hai lagoon in central Thua Thien-Hue Province.

A list of urban areas forecast to suffer the harshest effects of climate change is scheduled to be completed by 2020 under a project recently approved by Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai.

The PM has agreed the establishment of Bach Long Vi marine preservation zone with a total area of over 27,000 hectares.

Hundreds of people in Ha Nam Province have built tents around a local cement factory to oppose the pollution coming from it.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the southern province of Dong Nai will jointly host a Vietnam Forest Festival, the first of its kind in the country, in November 2014.