WHY THE WORLD IS RUNNING OUT OF SAND
18.11.2019 By Vince Beiser (BBC) - It may be little more than grains of weathered rock, and can be found in deserts and on beaches around the world, but sand is also the world’s second most consumed natural resource.
Trivial though it may seem, sand is a critical ingredient of our lives. It is the primary raw material that modern cities are made from. The concrete used to construct shopping malls, offices, and apartment blocks, along with the asphalt we use to build roads connecting them, are largely just sand and gravel glued together.  [read more]

VIETNAM'S COAL, CRUDE OIL IMPORTS SURGE ON RISING ENERGY DEMAND
12.11.2019 Khanh Vu (Reuters) - HANOI - Vietnam’s coal and crude oil imports surged in the first ten months of this year, government data released on Tuesday showed, highlighting the Southeast Asian country’s increasing reliance on imported energy to support its fast-growing economy.
The strong growth has boosted demand for coal. Imports of the commodity, mostly from Australia and Indonesia, during the January-October period more than doubled from a year earlier to 36.8 million tonnes, valued at $3.25 billion, the Customs Department said in a statement. [read more]

TROUBLES ON THE MEKONG - HOW CLIMATE CHANGE, DAMS, AND GEOPOLITICS THREATEN A RIVER’S FUTURE
07.11.2019 By Sam Geall (Foreign Affairs) - On October 29, Laos unveiled a new dam in the country’s north. The 1.3-gigawatt Xayaburi dam sits on the Mekong River, which flows the length of the country. Laos plans to build nearly a hundred like it by 2020—many with direct funding and support from China—in a bid to become “the battery of Asia,” exporting two-thirds of the energy it will generate from hydropower. But the dams threaten to choke an already encumbered river. As the Xayaburi dam started operating, water levels in the Mekong sank to 1.5 meters, the lowest level in a century. Reports emerged from neighboring Thailand of sandbars jutting into the waterway and channels running dry. [read more]

KLIMAWANDEL: ANSTIEG DER MEERE BEDROHT 300 MILLIONEN MENSCHEN
30.10.2019 Von Christoph von Eichhorn (SZ) - Der Anstieg des Meeresspiegels könnte im Jahr 2050 rund 300 Millionen Menschen bedrohen. Allein 150 Millionen würden dann in Regionen leben, die unterhalb der Flutlinie leben. Rechnet man jährliche Überschwemmungen etwa infolge von Sturmfluten mit ein, ergibt sich sogar die Zahl von 300 Millionen potenziell betroffenen Menschen. Zu diesen Ergebnissen kommt eine Studie der Organisation Climate Central im Fachjournal Nature Communications.
Bis 2050 erwarten die Studienautoren eine Zunahme des Meeresspiegels um 20 bis 30 Zentimeter.
70 Prozent der gefährdeten Menschen leben in acht asiatischen Staaten, in China, Bangladesch, Indien, Vietnam, Indonesien, Thailand, den Philippinen und Japan. [Weiterlesen]

STAUDÄMME MINDERN SEDIMENTTRANSPORT DES MEKONG
24.10.2019 (Stern) - Das Mekongdelta liefert die Lebensgrundlage für mindestens 17 Millionen Menschen. Ein wichtiger Faktor sind dabei die vom Fluss mitgebrachten nährstoffreichen Sedimente. Staudämme könnten diesen wichtigen Eintrag weitgehend stoppen, warnen Forscher.
Zahlreiche Staudämme sind im Einzugsgebiet des südostasiatischen Flusses Mekong geplant. Würden alle realisiert, würden rund 95 Prozent des natürlichen Sedimenttransports zurückgehalten, berichten Forscher im Fachmagazin «Science Advances».
Sie haben analysiert, wie die Staudämme mit möglichst geringen Auswirkungen auf die Umgebung geplant werden könnten. Das Mekongdelta stellt gegenwärtig die Lebensgrundlage für mindestens 17 Millionen Menschen dar. 50 Prozent der vietnamesischen Reisproduktion (2,5 Prozent der Weltproduktion) stammen von dort. [Weiterlesen]

LAOS URGED TO CANCEL LATEST DAM FOR MAINSTREAM MEKONG
19.10.2019 By Zsombor Peter (VOA) - BANGKOK - Environmental rights groups are calling on Laos to cancel the latest hydro-electric dam it has approved for construction across the Mekong River, warning of dire consequences for the millions of people who rely on the waterway for a living.
A six-month "prior consultation process" for the Luang Prabang dam began on October 8, giving Laos' partners in the Mekong River Commission (MRC) — Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam — a chance to review the project plans and raise concerns.  [read more]

AIR QUALITY APP UNDER 'COORDINATED ATTACK' IN VIETNAM AMID HEAVY HANOI SMOG
07.10.2019 (Reuters) - HANOI - Independent online air quality index monitor AirVisual said on Monday it is under “coordinated attack” to discredit the company after its data showed Hanoi has at times recently topped the list of the most polluted cities in the world.
Air pollution in Hanoi and other major cities in Vietnam has hit its worst-ever levels, with the government’s Environment Administration last week warning people to limit outdoor activities. [read more]

KÄFIGFARMEN IN VIETNAM: DIE STILLEN SCHREIE DER GALLENBÄREN
05.10.2019 von Till Fähnders (FAZ) - In Vietnam werden Schwarzbären oft in Käfigen gehalten, damit skrupellose Geschäftsleute den Saft ihrer Galle verkaufen können. Das ist nicht nur illegal, sondern äußerst grausam.
Am Eingang der Bärenfarm hängt ein Geruch aus Moder, Urin und Kot in der Luft. Der erste Bär auf der rechten Seite liegt reglos auf dem Rücken, auf den Gitterstäben am Boden des Käfigs. Die Pfoten hat er krampfhaft von seinem Körper weg gestreckt. Etwas weiter sitzt ein Bär zusammengekauert in der Ecke seines Käfigs. Er sieht kümmerlich aus, mit seinem nahezu nackten Rücken, an dem die Haare des Fells fast komplett abgefallen ist. Der Bär im nächsten Käfig hat sich auf den Hinterpfoten aufgerichtet. Er hat graue Striemen auf der Stirn, weil er immer wieder seinen Kopf an den Gitterstäben entlang gerieben hat. [Weiterlesen]

CATHOLIC INITIATIVES IN FAVOUR OF ‘INTEGRAL ECOLOGY’ IN HO CHI MINH CITY
03.10.2019 by Paul Nguyen Hung (Asia News) - Caritas Saigon has organised several seminars on Laudato si’. Youth in Hàng Xanh parish have become involved in collecting and reselling recyclable waste to fund useful projects. The city administration has welcomed the Church’s environmental efforts.
Since 2015, the year when the encyclical Laudato si’ was published, Vietnamese Catholics have responded to Pope Francis’ call to adopt "an integral ecology".
In the Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), parishes, religious communities, and ordinary believers have undertaken various initiatives to promote the message found in the pontiff’s second encyclical. [read more]

DEFORESTATION THREATENS THE MEKONG, BUT NEW TREES ARE GROWING IN SURPRISING PLACES
02.10.2019 Katie Reytar, Fred Stolle and Will Anderson (WRI) - More than 70 million people live in Southeast Asia's Mekong region, where trees and forests have multiple benefits for people and biodiversity. Trees lock soils in place, preventing landslides and protecting crops, while forests help regulate rainfall and water cycles.
But these forests are under threat. Expansion of agriculture and heavy logging have led to extensive forest loss and degradation in the past few decades. As much as one-third of the region's forest area was lost between 1973 and 2009. Between 2010 and 2017, the five countries of the Mekong lost 300,000 hectares of forest — an area four times the size of New York City. [read more]

INONDATIONS RECORD À SAIGON ET DANS LE DELTA DU MÉKONG
02.10.2019 (Le Petit Journal) - Les fortes marées qui ont atteint près de 1,77 mètre provoquent des inondations record à Saigon depuis le 29 septembre 2019, dépassant celles de février 2018 avec un pic mesuré à 1,71.
En raison des fortes marées ayant un impact sur le Delta du Mékong, le niveau de l’eau a pu atteindre jusqu’à 1,77 mètre ce lundi 30 septembre, dépassant une nouvelle fois le niveau d’alerte 3 (1,5 m) et le record mesuré à 1, 71 en 2018. Plusieurs quartiers ont été touchés par les inondations, principalement à Nhà Bè et à Phú An dans la province de Bình Dương. [en savoir plus]

CITING 'UNHEALTHY AIR', VIETNAM TELLS PEOPLE TO LIMIT OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES
01.10.2019 HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam warned its people on Tuesday to limit outdoor activities because the air quality in the Southeast Asian country has persistently been at “unhealthy” levels for days.
The levels of hazardous small particles known as PM2.5 in the air at the country’s two largest cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, have been rising persistently since early last month, exceeding “Vietnamese standards”, the government said in a statement.
The government blamed the pollution on low rain and farmers burning rice crop remnants after the harvest to prepare for new plantings. Coal is also widely used for power generation in the country. [read more]

THE DISPLACED: CLIMATE CHANGE IN VIETNAM 'DESTROYING FAMILY LIFE'
30.09.2019 (BBC) - Vietnam is one of the world's most vulnerable countries to climate change.
It's already having a huge impact on the lives of those in the Mekong Delta, the agricultural heartland of the country and home to 20% of the country's population.
In 2018 - more than 35,000 people were forced to flee their homes every day - that's one every two seconds. [read more]

VIETNAM SAYS 'URGENT MEASURES' NEEDED TO COMBAT MEKONG DELTA EROSION
24.09.2019 HANOI (Reuters) - Six provinces in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta region have been scrambling to battle the severe erosion of the sprawling river and coastal network, with some areas now requiring “urgent measures”, state media said on Tuesday.
The provinces, Long An, An Giang, Dong Thap, Ben Tre, Soc Trang and Ca Mau, have either declared emergencies or cordoned off long stretches of land on the Mekong’s edge because of the erosion, the official Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported. [read more]

GERMANY TO JOIN ALLIANCE TO PHASE OUT COAL
22.09.2019 (DW) - In the wake of the global student climate strike, Environment Minister Svenja Schulze said Germany would move further in its efforts to phase out coal. Berlin is hoping to shut down all its coal-powered plants by 2038.
Environment Minister Svenja Schulze said Germany would join the Powering Past Coal Alliance on Sunday. Schulze made the announcement to German Funke media group ahead of Monday's UN climate summit.
The move comes in the wake of large demonstrations across the world on Friday, led by teen climate activist Greta Thunberg and her movement Fridays for Future. [read more]

GRETA THUNBERG KICKS OFF UN YOUTH CLIMATE SUMMIT
21.09.2019 (DW) - The climate summit came just a day after millions of people took to the streets across the world as part of the Global Climate Strike. Thunberg hit out at older generations for doing little to curb carbon emissions.
On Friday, millions of people across the world participated in the Global Climate Strike, a weeklong protest initiated by Fridays for Future. Organizers are calling for an end to fossil fuels and want governments to implement the Paris Climate Agreement.
"Yesterday millions of people across the globe marched and demanded real climate action, especially young people. We showed that we are united and we young people are unstoppable," Thunberg said at the first of its kind Youth Climate Summit. [read more]

VIETNAMESE LIGHT BULB COMPANY USED MERCURY IN FACTORY DESTROYED BY FIRE
09.09.2019 (RFA) - A Vietnamese light bulb maker admitted to using liquid mercury, a danger to human health at high temperatures, and its director issued a public apology after fire destroyed a Hanoi factory that released the toxic metal that forced hundreds of people to evacuate schools and homes.
According to local Vietnamese media on September 8, the admission came during a meeting between a representative of the Rang Dong Light Bulb Company and the General Department of Environment on August 31, just one day after the company Company told local media it had stopped using liquid mercury in favor of safer mercury-zinc-bismuth amalgam in 2016. [read more]

VIETNAM'S MEKONG DELTA SINKS FIVE CENTIMETERS PER YEAR
06.09.2019 (Prensa Latina) - Vast areas at the mouth of Vietnam's Mekong River sink two to five centimeters each year and in about four decades, these areas could be under water.
Local media outlets report this Friday a study by the German Agency for International Cooperation, conducted by means of radar observations, according to which large agricultural areas and more than 1,000 localities in the region are exposed to this phenomenon.
According to experts, the main causes of the sinking territory include the construction of dams and hydroelectric plants upstream, saltwater intrusion, deforestation and excessive exploitation of groundwater. [read more]

HOHE QUECKSILBER-WERTE NACH BRAND IN VIETNAMESISCHER FABRIK
05.09.2019 (Der Farang) - HANOI (dpa) - In Vietnams Hauptstadt Hanoi sind nach einem Großbrand in einer Glühbirnenfabrik mehr als 15 Kilogramm Quecksilber ausgetreten. Auf dem Gelände wurden in der Luft Quecksilber-Werte gemessen, die teils das 30-Fache des zulässigen Höchstwertes erreichten, wie die staatlich gelenkte Presse...
Die Fabrik des Unternehmens Rang Dong war bereits am Mittwoch vergangener Woche niedergebrannt. Nach Firmenangaben wurden 15 Kilogramm Quecksilber freigesetzt. Das Umweltministerium sprach am Mittwochabend jedoch von etwa 27 Kilogramm. [Weiterlesen]

THREE VIETNAMESE SUE FUKUSHIMA FIRM OVER DECONTAMINATION WORK AT CRIPPLED NUCLEAR FACILITY
05.09.2019 (Jiji Press) - Three Vietnamese have sued a construction firm for damages, claiming they were exposed to radiation after the company had them engage in decontamination work related to the March 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima Prefecture.
The lawsuit was filed with Fukushima District Court’s branch in the city of Koriyama, a labor union supporting the plaintiffs said at a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday.
The three came to Japan in July 2015 to learn construction skills under the technical training program for foreign nationals. [read more]

MEKONG NEARS TIPPING POINT AS US-CHINA RIVALRY GROWS
27.08.2019 Brian Eyler and Aaron Salzberg (Nikkei Asian Review) - Difficult choices ahead as drought takes hold in downstream countries.
The Mekong River, which originates on the Tibetan Plateau and flows nearly 5,000 km through China, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam to the South China Sea, is in danger of drying up. The five downstream countries must act now to defend their collective interests or risk ceding control of the river to China, which controls the headwaters.
The downstream countries are experiencing a major drought that threatens fisheries and agricultural production throughout the river basin. Over the past two months, most portions of the Mekong system have recorded historically low water levels. [read more]

CITES 2019: WELTKONFERENZ FÜR DEN ARTENSCHUTZ
16.08.2019 Arnulf Köhncke (WWF Deutschland) - Jetzt beginnt in Genf die 18. Konferenz des Washingtoner Artenschutzabkommens CITES. CITES reguliert den Handel mit wilden Tieren und Pflanzen. Sie findet nur alle drei Jahre statt — und hier fallen die wesentlichen Entscheidungen für den Artenschutz.
Inzwischen ist Vietnam der größte Abnahmemarkt für Elfenbeinprodukte und für Nashornhorn. Das Land macht uns auch massive Sorgen beim Handel mit Tigerteilen, Edelhölzern und Schuppentieren. [Weiterlesen]

HUNDREDS IN VIETNAM PROTEST DAM UPGRADE, FEARING FLOODS
15.08.2019 (RFA) - Hundreds of residents in a largely Catholic district of central Vietnam’s Quang Binh province protested on Thursday to oppose the enlargement of a local dam, saying that an increase in the dam’s height will raise the risk of floods, Vietnamese sources said.
The Rao Nan Dam in Quang Binh’s Quang Trach district sits upstream from nine different communes to which it supplies water, and authorities have long planned an upgrade to provide greater capacity during the area’s dry season. [read more]

DAMS THREATEN WAY OF LIFE IN MEKONG COUNTRIES
30.07.2019 Dominic Faulder (Nikkei Asian Review) - BANGKOK -- The operation of dams along the Mekong River is exacerbating conditions in a particularly dry year and choking off a lifeline for Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Meteorologists in Thailand forecast that 2019 will turn out to be the driest in at least a decade. In the Lower Mekong countries of Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, many are also pointing their fingers north to China and Laos for "switching off" two dams, resulting in gravely reduced flows.
For its part, China's Ministry of Water Resources gave notice that the Jinghong dam in Yunnan province in the nation's central-south area would be reducing its release by half between July 5 and 19 for "grid maintenance." [read more]

SCHMUGGLER PLÜNDERN STRAND
26.07.2019 (Mannheimer Morgen) - Der weltweite Bauboom hat die Nachfrage nach Sand und Kies einer neuen Studie zufolge in 20 Jahren verdreifacht. Mit 40 bis 50 Milliarden Tonnen im Jahr sei Sand gemessen am Volumen nach Wasser der größte gehandelte Rohstoff der Welt, teilte das UN-Umweltprogramm (Unep) in Genf mit. Der unregulierte Abbau sei für die Umwelt aber gefährlich, warnte Unep. „Flüsse, Deltas und Küsten werden ausgewaschen, Sand-Mafias blühen.“
Am Mekong in Asien mache sich der Sandabbau in Laos, Thailand und Kambodscha und im Flussdelta in Vietnam durch Erosion bemerkbar. [Weiterlesen]

DAM DISASTER ON THE WAY
20.07.2019 (Bangkok Post) - It is now early on in the rainy season and the water volume on the Mekong River should have been high. But water levels on certain stretches of the international river, which runs from China through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, have reached their lowest points for 57 years.
While this year's dearth of rain partly explains the sharp drop in water volume, man-made factors -- dams built on the river in China and Laos -- must also take the blame for stopping water from flowing freely along the river. [read more]

FOOD POISONINGS IN VIETNAM
02.07.2019 (MENAFN) - The country's Preventive Health Department said on Monday that 866 people in Vietnam suffered from food poisoning, and five died in the first half of this year.
In the same time last year, 923 people were also food poisoned, and six of them died. [read more]

ERDERWÄRMUNG - GEPLANTE KRAFTWERKE SPRENGEN KLIMAZIELE
01.07.2019 (SZ) - Rein physikalisch betrachtet gibt es auf der Erde bislang keinen Klimaschutz. Denn dies würde voraussetzen, dass die jährlichen Treibhausgas-Emissionen sinken, und damit auch der Gehalt von Kohlendioxid in der Atmosphäre. Jedoch ist beides auf einem Rekordhoch.
Mit 42 Milliarden Tonnen CO2 stieß die Menschheit 2018 so viel aus wie nie zuvor, ergibt einen gegenwärtigen Rekordwert von 415 Teilchen CO2 pro eine Million Luftmoleküle.
In Vietnam könnten sich die Emissionen aus der Kohlekraft bis 2030 fast verzehnfachen [Weiterlesen]

VIETNAMESE MAN MAKES BIODEGRADABLE STRAWS FROM WILD GRASS TO SOLVE WORLD’S PLASTIC PROBLEM
19.06.2019 By Chris Ford (The Epoch Times) - Each year, there is a staggering 8 million tons of plastic finding its way into our oceans. Among these are the plastic straws that are used daily. The United States alone uses and discards about 500 million plastic straws each day, and this impacts our Earth in a huge way.
An innovation by a Vietnamese man named Tran Minh Tien has shown how a certain type of grass named Lepironia articulata that is prolific around the Mekong Delta in Vietnam  is converted into drinking straws.
These straws do not contain any chemicals and preservatives. And most importantly, they are biodegradable. [read more]

JAILED VIETNAMESE ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS ‘SERIOUSLY ILL,’ SAYS WIFE OF GROUP LEADER
14.06.2019 (RFA) - Elderly members of an environmental protection group jailed in 2013 in Vietnam on charges of plotting to overthrow the government are “seriously ill,” according to the wife of the group’s leader, who called for international support, saying requests to suspend their sentences on medical grounds have gone unanswered.
Twenty-two members of the Council for the Laws and Public Affairs of Bia Son, named for a mountain in south central Vietnam’s coastal Phu Yen province, went on trial on Jan. 28, 2013, with group leader Phan Van Thu—also known as Tran Cong—later sentenced to life in prison and 20 others handed terms of between 10 and 17 years under Article 79 of Vietnam’s penal code. [read more]

CALL FOR DISASTER COMPENSATION
12.06.2019 (The Star) - Taipei: Representatives of 7,800 Vietnamese people affected by a 2016 chemical spill filed a lawsuit against Taiwanese multinational Formosa Plastics Group in Taipei.
The spill caused by Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, a Vietnamese subsidiary of the Taiwan-based parent company, killed hundreds of tonnes of fish in the seas off four central Vietnamese provinces, the plaintiffs’ representatives said outside Taiwan Taipei district court yesterday.
The subsidiary was fined more than US$500mil (RM2mil) by the Vietnamese government in late 2016. However, residents affected by the spill have not received any compensation. [read more]

VIETNAMESE VICTIMS OF 2016 MARINE DISASTER HAVE FILED A LANDMARK LAWSUIT AGAINST FORMOSA PLASTICS GROUP IN TAIWAN
11.06.2019 (Global Voices) - In a landmark move, victims of the 2016 marine disaster that affected the coastal communities in central Vietnam filed a transnational lawsuit against the Taiwanese corporation responsible for the environmental damage, Formosa Plastics Group (FPG), on Jun 11, 2019. If successful, this case could pave the way for new norms related to Taiwanese corporate responsibility for environmental protection in third-party countries.
With the assistance of environmental and human rights organizations in Taiwan, Vietnam, US, France and Canada, the legal representatives of the Vietnamese plaintiffs, a group composed of 7,875 victims of the marine disaster, presented the lawsuit against FPG at the Taipei district court on June 11. [read more]

ASIEN WILL NICHT MEHR DIE MÜLLDEPONIE DES WESTENS
04.06.2019 (derStandard) - Nach den Philippinen beginnt auch Malaysia, illegal importierte Abfälle zurückzuschicken Seit China zu Jahresanfang den Import von 24 Sorten Recyclingmaterialien, darunter unsortierter Plastikmüll und alte CDs, verboten hat, haben westliche Müllexporteure ein Problem. Dort landeten nämlich bisher sieben Millionen Tonnen, also mehr als die Hälfte der weltweit anfallenden Kunststoff-, Papier- und Metallabfälle. Thailand, Malaysia und Vietnam haben ähnliche Regelungen eingeführt, kämpfen aber mit falsch deklarierten Importen. [Weiterlesen]

VIETNAM WORRIED BY THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF CHINESE COMPANIES
03.06.2019 by Ngoc Linh (Asia News) - In recent years, Beijing has built infrastructure, set up manufacturing plants and opened agricultural plantations along the border. In Vietnam this is widely seen as the prelude of an invasion, based on China’s aggressive expansionism in other parts of the country, and in the South China Sea, which in Vietnam is known as the East Sea.
Seven Vietnamese provinces – Điện Biên, Lai Châu, Lào Cai, Hà Giang, Cao Bằng, Lng Sơn and Qung Ninh – are located on the border with China’s Yunnan and Guangxi provinces. The area is mountainous and viewed as "the lungs of the country". Local rivers and streams are an important source of water. [read more]

VIETNAM PROMOTES THE DEVELOPMENT OF RENEWABLE ENERGIES
01.06.2019 (REVE) - In order to meet the growing demand for electricity in Vietnam, it is expected that alternative sources such as wind energy and solar power will be the future for the energy sector in the Indochinese country in the coming years.
Currently, by investing in industries and increasing the population, the coverage of electricity demand is a challenge. [read more]

FOOD SAFETY, POLLUTION TOP VIETNAM’S LATEST SURVEY OF PUBLIC CONCERNS
15.05.2019 Ha Nguyen (VOA) - HO CHI MINH CITY — The biggest worries among Vietnamese people are food safety, pollution, and corruption, according to a new survey that suggests not enough has been done about these issues since they were raised two years ago.
Food safety led the list of 13 concerns, with 86 percent of people citing it in the public opinion study done in late April by Indochina Research Vietnam Ltd. Rounding out the top five concerns were education and health care. [read more]

ETAPPENSIEG IM KAMPF GEGEN PLASTIKMÜLL
11.05.2019 (SZ) - 187 Länder hatten sich am Freitagabend in Genf darauf geeinigt, dass künftig nur noch sortierter, gereinigter und wiederverwertbarer Plastikmüll gehandelt werden darf. Für den Export anderer Plastikabfälle wird künftig weltweit eine Zustimmung der Behörden der Export- und der Importstaaten erforderlich sein.
Anfang 2018 hat China die Importe von Kunststoffabfällen zum Recycling stark eingeschränkt. Nun landen diese Abfälle in anderen Ländern vor allem in Südostasien, etwa Malaysia, Indonesien, Vietnam, Thailand und Indien. Weit mehr als 100 Millionen Tonnen Abfall verseuchen nach UN-Angaben bereits die Weltmeere. [Weiterlesen]

PLASTIKMÜLL: DIE TRAURIGE WAHRHEIT IN VIETNAM
10.05.2019 Alisha Weigand (WWF Deutschland) - Plastikmüll in unseren Ozeanen ist das Thema meines Trainee-Jahres beim WWF. Denn insbesondere marine Ökosysteme leiden massiv unter der Vermüllung durch „unseren“ Plastikmüll. Und das ganz besonders in Asien. Vietnam zählt zu den fünf Ländern, die weltweit als Hauptverursacher für Plastikmüll im Meer gelten. Eine der Hauptgründe dafür ist die unzureichende Abfallwirtschaft.
Um die Situation vor Ort besser einschätzen zu können und neue Projektregionen zu erkunden, flogen meine Kollegen und ich nach Vietnam. Wir fanden wunderschöne Orte, tolle und engagierte Menschen… Und viel Plastikmüll. [Weiterlesen]

VIETNAM: SUSTAINING WATER RESOURCES AND BUILDING CLIMATE RESILIENCE
03.05.2019 (The World Bank) - The Mekong Delta Water Management for Rural Development project created gains in agricultural productivity for local farmers, provided access to water supply for rural households, and contributed to climate change adaptation and resilience. Overall, the project contributed towards improving the livelihoods of farmers and residents in the Mekong Delta. [read more]

PLASTIKMÜLL-EXPORTE WECHSELN RASCH DIE ZIELLÄNDER
23.04.2019 (SZ) - Berlin (dpa) - Wenn ein Land die Einfuhr von Plastikmüll stoppt, landet der Abfall eben anderswo: Umweltschützer kritisieren die Vermüllung vieler Länder mit Plastik auch aus Deutschland.
Als China die Importe weitgehend gestoppt hat, seien zunächst Malaysia, Vietnam und Thailand in den Fokus gerückt, heißt es in einer Analyse der Organisationen Greenpeace und Gaia. [Weiterlesen]

USA ENTFERNEN GIFTRÜCKSTÄNDE IN VIETNAM
20.04.2019 (DW) - Jahrzehnte nach Ende des Vietnamkriegs soll ein neues Projekt die Spätfolgen des Konflikts beseitigen. Eine frühere US-Militärbasis im Süden des asiatischen Landes wird vom damals eingesetzten Gift Agent Orange befreit.
Während des Vietnamkriegs hatten US-Truppen zwischen 1962 und 1971 rund 80 Millionen Liter des dioxinhaltigen Entlaubungsmittels Agent Orange im Süden von Vietnam versprüht.
Aufbewahrt wurde Agent Orange auf dem ehemaligen Luftwaffenstützpunkt Bien Hoa, den die USA und Vietnam nun gemeinsam reinigen wollen. Es sei "wahrlich historisch", dass die beiden früheren Feinde nun als Partner eine solch "komplexe Aufgabe" in Angriff nähmen, sagte US-Botschafter Daniel Kritenbrink zu Beginn der Arbeiten. [Weiterlesen]

CANCER KILLED MORE THAN 300 VIETNAMESE EVERY DAY IN 2018
18.04.2019 (Asia Times) - Liver cancer the most frequent among men, breast cancer for women.
According to official statistics, almost 115,000 citizens in Vietnam were killed by cancer in 2018 – meaning more than 300 died of the disease each day.
The numbers were collected by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Cancer Observatory and were announced by Hanoi’s K Hospital Director Tran Van Thuan on April 16, VN Express reported. [read more]

ENVIRONMENT - SOUTHEAST ASIA LOOKS FOR OUTSIDE HELP TO FLUSH SEWAGE PROBLEMS
12.04.2019 Yukinori Hanada (Nikkei Asian Review) - TOKYO -- Southeast Asia's growing industrial activity and rising population are spelling disaster to natural waterways, forcing nations in the region to ramp up spending on sewage projects to tackle the problem of poor water quality.
In Hanoi, only about 30% of sewage is treated, compared with 50% in Bangkok. Raw effluent often flows into waterways, causing serious health problems and mass fish deaths in polluted rivers. [read more]

CANCER-CAUSING HERBICIDES BANNED IN VIETNAM
12.04.2019 (Asia Times) - Authorities to recall and destroy herbicides a year after ban takes effect, while Thailand says it will ban glyphosate, paraquat and chlorpyrifos in 2021
Vietnamese authorities have banned herbicides containing glyphosate after it was discovered that the substance causes cancer.
On April 10, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Vietnam announced that its decision would take effect 60 days after senior officials sign off on the move, VN Express reported. Glyphosate-based herbicides will be banned from being produced or imported into Vietnam. [read more]

NINE TONNES OF IVORY SEIZED IN VIETNAM, WORLD’S LARGEST HAUL
29.03.2019 (OCCRP) - Vietnamese customs has seized over nine tonnes of ivory found in a container shipment from the Republic of Congo, thought to be the largest ivory seizure in recorded history.
Officials in the coastal city of Da Nang discovered the illicit goods during an inspection of a container of timber originating in the Congo, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a UK-based NGO, said Thursday in a press release.
Nine tonnes of ivory tusks is equivalent to over 1,000 slaughtered elephants. [read more]

MEHRERE TONNEN ELFENBEIN IN VIETNAM SICHERGESTELLT
29.03.2019 (Südtirol Online) - Der vietnamesische Zoll hat in einem Schiff aus der Demokratischen Republik Kongo mehr als 9 Tonnen mutmaßliches Elfenbein sichergestellt.
Das Schmuggelgut sei am Dienstag in einer Holzlieferung im Hafen der zentral gelegenen Stadt Danang entdeckt und beschlagnahmt worden, teilte der Zoll am Freitag mit. Es sei eine der größten illegalen Einfuhren von Wildtiertrophäen der vergangenen Jahre. [Weiterlesen]

NEUE SCHILDKRÖTENART STEHT KURZ VOR AUSROTTUNG
13.02.2019 (SZ) - Dresden (dpa) - Wissenschaftler haben eine neue Schildkrötenart beschrieben und gleichzeitig Alarm geschlagen. Denn die in Nordvietnam und China nachgewiesene Flecken-Weichschildkröte sei akut vom Aussterben bedroht, teilte die Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung mit.
"Der etwa 23 Zentimeter lange gelb-graue Panzer dieser Schildkrötenart weist eine sehr auffällige Zeichnung mit großen grün-schwarzen Flecken auf. Diese morphologische Besonderheit entlarvte die Tiere unter anderem als bisher unbeschriebene Art", erklärte Uwe Fritz von den Senckenberg Naturhistorischen Sammlungen in Dresden. [Weiterlesen]

FROM TIBET TO THE 'NINE DRAGONS', VIETNAM'S MEKONG DELTA IS LOSING SAND
14.01.2019 Mai Nguyen, James Pearson (Reuters) - MO CAY, Vietnam - In the dead of night, the entire front half of shopkeeper Ta Thi Kim Anh’s house collapsed. Perched on the sandy banks of the Mekong River, it took just a few minutes for one half of everything she owned to plunge into its murky depths.
Upstream damming and extensive mining of the Mekong’s riverbed for sand is causing the land between the sprawling network of rivers and channels near the mouth of one of the world’s great rivers to sink at a pace of around 2 cm (0.75 inches) a year, experts and officials said. [read more]

TONS OF GARBAGE WASHING UP ON BEACHES IN VIETNAM
13.12.2018 (Asia Times) - Da Nang’s sewers are unable to keep up with urbanization, says expert.
eavy monsoon rainfall in Da Nang, Vietnam has left the city’s beaches covered in garbage after rainwater overloaded Da Nang’s domestic sewage system, VN Express reported.
Large volumes of garbage accompanied the rainwater into the sea, and was subsequently washed ashore on Da Nang’s beaches. [read more]

HOW BILLIONS OF DISCARDED TETRA PAKS COVER VIETNAM'S BEACHES AND TOWNS
09.12.2018 Corinne Redfern (The Guardian) - More than 8bn Tetra Paks are sold every year in Vietnam – and only a few percent are recycled. It’s having a devastating effect on the environment.
... Milk consumption in Vietnam has almost doubled in the past 10 years, as the dairy industry shifts its focus from “saturated” western markets in favour of Asian expansion and is now valued at $4.1bn (£3.1bn). But one of the biggest beneficiaries of this growth seems to be the dairy industry’s principal packaging supplier, Tetra Pak. Last year, 8.1bn of Tetra Pak’s individual cartons were sold across Vietnam. [read more]

FOOD SCANDALS PUSH VIETNAMESE TO SEEK SOLUTIONS
04.12.2018 Ha Nguyen (VOA) - HO CHI MINH CITY — Bich Ngoc loves Instagram food shots like any other self-respecting millennial, but not just for their photogenic allure: She gets on social media to check if certain cuisine is safe. Ngoc, 18, is among the growing number of Vietnamese who have become increasingly alarmed at the perils lurking in their rice bowls. She follows social media influencers, as well as reads comments on the review site Foody, when deciding whether to trust a particular restaurant, brand, or dish.
Food scandals are common in Vietnam, and businesses and consumers are looking for solutions as the scandals mount. Street vendors have been known to reuse cooking oil so many times it becomes toxic. Video clips have been posted showing a merchant dyeing vegetable greens to make them more colorful. [read more]

ERNEUERBARE ENERGIEN IN SÜDOSTASIEN IM KOMMEN
15.11.2018 (Philippinen Magazin) - Manila, Philippinen – Ein neuer Bericht bringt es auf den Punkt: Innerhalb bon weniger als einem Jahrzehnt wird es in Indonesien, auf den Philippinen und in Vietnam weit günstiger sein, neue Photoboltaikkapazitäten auszubauen als bestehende Kohlekraftwerke zur Stromerzeugung am Laufen zu halten.
Der Ende Oktober von Carbon Tracker, einem unabhängigen Think Tank in London, veröffentlichte Bericht, prognostiziert außerdem, dass der Betrieb vietnamesischer Kohlekraftwerke bis 2029 weit teurer sein wird als der Bau von neuen Windkraftanlagen an Land. [Weiterlesen]

WASSERKRAFT – WELCHES ASIATISCHE LAND HAT DIE MEISTE LEISTUNG?
28.10.2018 (Philippinen Magazin) - Manila, Philippinen – Nach dem jüngsten Bericht über den Status der Wasserkraft haben Ostasien und der pazifische Raum die höchste jährliche Zunahme der Wasserkraftkapazität, wobei China den größten Anteil der installierten Kapazität beisteuert.
Vietnam belegt mit einer installierten Kapazität von 16,679 MW den dritten Platz in der Region. Mit dem 260-MW-Trung-Son-Projekt, das 2017 in Betrieb gehen wird, wurde die Kapazität der größeren Mekong-Region erhöht. [Weiterlesen]

CHINA’S IVORY BAN PUSHES TRADE TO NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES
24.10.2018 By Mike Gaworecki (Asian Correspondent) - WHEN China banned all commercial trade in elephant ivory and shuttered its domestic ivory markets at the end of 2017, conservationists applauded the measure. But they also warned that if China’s neighbours didn’t take similar action, the ivory trade would simply shift to those countries.
New research finds that those concerns were absolutely justified, though China’s ivory ban has had some decidedly positive impacts all the same.
Chinese consumers overwhelmingly view the ban favorably, according to the survey, which found that 9 out of 10 respondents support it. Or at least, 9 out of 10 respondents said they supported the ban once they were made aware of it. [read more]

MEKONG DELTA FIGHTS HIGH-TIDE FLOODING
14.10.2018 (The Straits Times) - HANOI • The local authorities in Vietnam's Mekong Delta are taking steps to mitigate the impact of flooding caused by high tides during the annual flood season.
The delta's provinces and Can Tho City have been severely affected by high tides over the past few days.
The floods this year have affecting some 37ha of rice fields and 91ha of vegetable and cash crops, according to the city's committee for natural disaster prevention. [read more]

BELASTENDER BOOM
24.09.2018 (Spiegel Online) - Die Halong-Bucht mit ihren spektakulären Inseln und Kalkfelsen ist eines der Topreiseziele in Vietnam. In den vergangenen Jahren hat sich das Gebiet aber massiv verändert, weil zu viele Besucher kommen.
Ein europäischer "Sentinel"-Satellit hat das Gebiet der im Nordosten von Vietnam gelegenen Halong-Bucht im Juli 2018 fotografiert. Die Bucht mit ihren spektakulären Inseln und Kalkfelsen ist ein Topreiseziel.
Beeindruckend ist nun der Vergleich mit einem Bild, das ein amerikanischer "Landsat"-Satellit vier Jahre zuvor vom gleichen Ort gemacht hat. Es zeigt eine deutlich geringere Bebauung.
Der Tourismusboom sorgt für Umweltprobleme in dem Gebiet: neben der Flächenversiegelung gibt es teilweise Belastungen durch Müll im Meer sowie die Abgase der zahlreichen Ausflugsboote. [Weiterlesen]

AS SAND MINING GROWS, ASIA’S DELTAS ARE SINKING, WATER EXPERTS WARN
22.09.2018 (The Asahi Shimbun) - STOCKHOLM-- Sand mining from rivers is depriving many low-lying Asian deltas of the sediment they need to maintain themselves, raising the risk of worsening land loss to sea level rise, researchers say.
“We have created a recipe for climate disaster,” said Marc Goichot of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
The Mekong delta, for instance, home to 17 million people, is a major source of rice for the region and underpins a quarter of Vietnam’s GDP, Goichot said.
At the heart of the problem, Goichot said, is a lack of enough sediment moving down the rivers and much of that is the result of mining of sand as a construction material and for other uses, he said. [read more]

VIETNAMESE FIGHTING BACK ON PLASTIC POLLUTION
19.09.2018 (VOA) - HO CHI MINH CITY — For many Vietnamese people, it is a ritual as circadian as the sunrise: On the way to work, they pull over their motorbikes to grab an iced coffee from a street vendor, complete with a plastic cup, plastic lid, plastic straw, and plastic case to hang from the bikes as they drive.
The coffee, with four separate pieces of plastic for a single drink, exemplifies how this packaging has became such a common and wasteful scourge on Vietnam’s environment. But some citizens have become alarmed by the trend and begun fighting back against the pollution. [read more]

A LATE START: RENEWABLE ENERGY DEVELOPMENT IN VIETNAM
21.08.2018 By Lars Blume (CleanTechnica) - Vietnam is located on the Indochina peninsula in Southeast Asia. The country’s total length is 1,650 kilometers from the northernmost point to the southernmost point. Vietnam has a diverse topography consisting of hills, mountains, deltas, coastline, and continental shelf.
In 2015, Vietnam’s installed capacity reached 39.35 GW. Coal (3.5%), gas (22.5%) and medium and large-scale hydropower (37.5%) were the three main pillars of electricity production in 2015, whereas renewable energy sources account for just 5.4% including small hydro, biomass, wind and solar. [read more]

THE ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS OF INTENSIVE SHRIMP FARMING ON THE MEKONG DELTA
20.07.2018 Zoe Osborne (Pacific Standard) - Vietnam either has to change the way it approaches shrimp farming or face the loss of hundreds of hectares of land.
... With no trees to hold nutrients in the soil or keep the salty water table down, Hung's farm was completely exposed to the elements. As well as drought, a series of devastating floods in 2002, 2008, and 2016 ripped more sediment from the banks of his ponds, and his land eventually became so badly degraded that he could no longer use it.
Hung's situation is all too common in Vietnam. Yet shrimp farming remains popular. The government is pushing to expand it, having announced plans last year to boost exports from $3 billion in 2016 to $10 billion by 2025.
But there are significant environmental problems associated with current farming methods. Deforestation, erosion, rapid land subsidence, and rising salinity levels are threatening the stability of the entire Mekong region. [read more]

DEKONTAMINIERUNG - WURDEN AUSLÄNDER GEZIELT FÜR ARBEITEN IN FUKUSHIMA EINGESETZT?
13.07.2018 (Spiegel Online) - Über ein Ausbildungsprogramm kamen Arbeiter aus Vietnam nach Japan. Dort sollen sie dazu genötigt worden sein, im havarierten Atomkraftwerk Fukushima riskante Aufgaben zu übernehmen.
Es ist ein Skandal, der Japan erschüttert: Ausländische Arbeitskräfte sollen bei der Dekontaminierung der atomaren Katastrophenregion Fukushima eingesetzt worden sein.
Nach neuen Berichten sind vier japanische Firmen darin verwickelt. Sie setzten angeblich ausländische Arbeiter, die im Rahmen eines Ausbildungsprogramms in das Land gekommen waren, für die riskanten Arbeiten ein, heißt es nach Angaben japanischer Medien in einem Regierungsbericht. [Weiterlesen]

GRUNDSTEINLEGUNG FÜR GRÖßTE VIETNAMESISCHE SOLARANLAGE: ERFOLGREICHE KOOPERATION DEUTSCHER UND VIETNAMESISCHER UNTERNEHMEN
10.07.2018 (German Embassy Hanoi) - Am 07.07.2018 unterzeichneten die deutsche Firma Siemens und Trung Nam aus Vietnam einen Vertrag über den Bau der größten Solaranlage Vietnams in der Provinz Ninh Thuan. Die Anlage mit einer Kapazität von 204 Megawatt soll bis Juni 2019 fertiggestellt sein und dann jährlich 450 Millionen kWh (Kilowattstunden) Strom produzieren. Während der ersten fünf Jahre nach Fertigstellung wird die Anlage von Siemens betrieben und gewartet. Damit ist dieses deutsch-vietnamesische Energieprojekt die bisher größte, ausschließlich von privaten Firmen finanzierte Investition im Bereich Erneuerbare Energien in ganz Vietnam.
Zusammen mit einer benachbarten Windkraftanlage, deren Bau bereits 2017 begonnen wurde und an der die deutsche Firma Enercon beteiligt ist, werden in der Provinz Ninh Thuan zukünftig mehr als 300 Megawatt Elektrizität produziert werden – damit wird Ninh Thuan zur Herzkammer der Erneuerbaren Energien in Vietnam! Die südliche Küstenprovinz Ninh Thuan bietet hervorragende Bedingungen bei Wind und Sonne und strebt an, die Erzeugung Erneuerbarer Energien bis 2030 auf über 5.000 Megawatt pro Jahr auszubauen. [Weiterlesen]

NGOS TAKE FORMOSA PLASTICS TO TASK OVER MARINE DISASTER IN VIETNAM
20.06.2018 (Focus Taiwan) - Taipei, June 20 (CNA) Scores of Vietnamese expatriates in Taiwan and local activists staged a rally in Taipei on Wednesday, demanding that the Formosa Plastics Group take responsibility for the 2016 marine disaster caused by toxic industrial waste from its steel plant in Ha Tinh, Vietnam.
"Formosa Plastics, shoulder corporate social responsibility," the protesters shouted outside Sunworld Dynasty Hotel in Taipei, where the company was holding its shareholders meeting.
They also demanded that Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp, which had suspended operations for a year in the wake of the disaster in April 2016, monitor pollutants in the marine environment and make the information public. [read more]

PLASTIC WASTELAND: ASIA'S OCEAN POLLUTION CRISIS
05.06.2018 (AFP) - About eight million tonnes of plastic waste are dumped into the world's oceans every year, the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic being tipped into the sea every minute of every day.
More than half comes from five Asian countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, according to a 2015 Ocean Conservancy report.
They are among the fastest growing economies in Asia, where much of the world's plastic is produced, consumed and discarded -- most of it improperly in countries where waste management is at best patchy. [read more]

SOUTHEAST ASIA'S PLASTIC "ADDICTION" BLIGHTS WORLD'S OCEANS
05.06.2018 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - ... As World Environment Day on Tuesday takes place and the United Nations calls for the "biggest-ever worldwide cleanup" of plastic pollution, experts are focused on Southeast Asia, home to four of the world's top marine plastic polluters.
From major cities like Bangkok and Jakarta to beach resorts in the Philippines and Vietnam, plastic bags and bottles are the ubiquitous face of pollution in the region.
In Thailand, where two million tonnes of plastic waste is produced a year, plastic is an "addiction," said Geoff Baker, an anti-plastic campaigner with Grin Green International. [read more]
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DRASTIC PLASTIC: VIETNAM BEACH AWASH WITH TIDE OF BLUE WASTE
04.06.2018 Kham Nguyen, Thinh Nguyen (Reuters) - THANH HOA, Vietnam - There’s almost more plastic than sand on this long, tree-lined beach: Plastic helmets, plastic furniture and the plastic leg of a shop mannequin all jut out of an ocean of blue plastic bags.
Just south of the capital Hanoi, the once-peaceful and clean beach of Da Loc in Vietnam’s Thanh Hoa province, has been slowly suffocating under the weight of plastic waste for decades.
“Plastic bags have been waste here since the first day we started using them,” said Pham Thi Lai, 60, a local seafood processor. [read more]

VIETNAM: MEHR SONNE UND WIND, ABER AUCH MEHR KOHLE?
04.06.2018 Wolfgang Pomrehn (Telepolis) - Vietnam hat sich den Ausbau erneuerbarer Energieträger vorgenommen. Premierminister Nguyen Xuan Phuc kündigte in einem Gespräch mit der Nachrichtenagentur Reuters an, die jährliche Strommenge dieses Sektors von derzeit 58 Milliarden Kilowattstunden (TWh) auf 101 TWh im Jahre 2020 und 186 TWh im Jahre 2030 auszuweiten. Diese werden voraussichtlich überwiegend mit neuen Windkraft- und Solaranlagen erzeugt, denn das Wasserkraftpotenzial ist nach Angaben der Nachrichtenagentur weitgehend ausgeschöpft.
Allein im Mekong-Delta im Süden des Landes sind derzeit 14 neue Kohlekraftwerke geplant, wie vietnamesische Umweltschützer im Internet schreiben. [Weiterlesen]

NGUY THI KHANH: DIE WELT EIN BISSCHEN BESSER MACHEN
30.05.2018 (Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung) - Nguy Thi Khanh leitet das Green Innovation and Development Center Vietnam (GreenID) und kooperiert mit der Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung in Südostasien im Aufbau eines Netzwerkes für erneuerbare Energien. 2018 gehörte sie zu den Personen, die mit dem Goldman Environmental Prize ausgezeichnet wurden.
Der Goldman Environmental Prize ist einer der renommiertesten Auszeichnungen für Umweltschutzaktivistinnen und -aktivisten weltweit. In diesem Jahr geht er zum ersten Mal nach Vietnam – und setzt damit international ein wichtiges Zeichen, dass der Ausbau erneuerbarer Energien im Land Fortschritte macht. [Weiterlesen]

VIETNAM’S FIRST GOLDMAN PRIZE WINNER PUSHES FOR ENERGY CONSERVATION
29.05.2018 by Michael Tatarski (Mongabay) - Khanh Nguy Thi is an environmental pioneer in Vietnam. She has led her NGO, the Hanoi-based Green Innovation and Development Centre, or GreenID, to the forefront of policy discussions surrounding clean energy development in the country.
Her efforts to reduce Vietnam’s reliance on coal-fired power plants has resulted in both real policy changes and international renown in the form of the 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize. Khanh spoke with Mongabay by phone from her home in Hanoi and shared more about her work. [read more]

VIETNAM HIT BY IODINE DEFICIENCY AGAIN
27.05.2018 (The Star) - HANOI: Iodine deficiency, which can causes mental retardation, has come back to Vietnam, especially in mountain communities, the country’s National Hospital of Endocrinology said.
In the 2005 to 2006 period, 93% of families used sufficient amounts of iodine, mostly in the form of iodised salt, and few people suffered goitre.
A key reason for the iodine deficiency comeback is that Vietnam’s iodised salt mandate was repealed in 2006 and programme administration budgets were slashed by 90%, said the Iodine Global Net­work, a non-profit organisation for the sustainable elimination of iodine deficiency worldwide. [read more]

THE HANOI PEOPLE'S COMMITTEE IDENTIFIES TEN POSSIBLE DISASTERS
25.05.2018 (AsiaNews) - Hanoi – The risks include radioactive dust from three nuclear power plants in southern China, damages to a dyke on the Red River, as well as fires, explosions and collapses affecting about 1,600 obsolete apartment buildings. Authorities also fear the fall of an elevated trains on city streets.
One of the risks identified is radioactive dust from three nuclear power stations located in southern China, which could pollute the city's air and water sources.
The plants – a 1,000-megawatt plant in Guangxi, a 600-megawatt plant in Guangdong and a 650-megawatt plant on Hainan Island – are located near the northern border of Vietnam and became operational in 2016. [read more]

VIETNAM IS A TEST FOR WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE U.S. ABANDONS CLIMATE DIPLOMACY
22.05.2018 By Alexander C. Kaufman (Huffington Post) - The Asian country’s energy needs are growing and coal power is a tempting solution.
... Nearly a year after President Donald Trump announced plans to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accords, Vietnam has effectively become a canary in the coal mine for how closely other nations will stick to the global agreement’s goals as the U.S. abandons them.
Vietnam is under pressure, attempting to balance rapidly increasing energy demands with growing concerns over climate change ― and it’s finding a generous coal-friendly patron in China.
During the final years of the Obama administration, however, the U.S. urged Vietnam to pursue renewable energy and cleaner-burning natural gas instead. Vietnam enthusiastically signed onto the Paris Agreement in April 2016 and since then has received roughly $40.5 million in aid from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Green Climate Fund. [read more]

NEW CHINESE DAM ON THE MEKONG TO HAVE DEVASTATING ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES
22.05.2018 by Peter Hung (AsiaNews) - With an investment of almost US$ 5 billion, China is set to build the Sambor dam in Cambodia. According to experts, it will have a very negative impact on the natural environment and on the Cambodians and Vietnamese living in the Mekong Delta. The great river provides food security to about 60 million people living in the settlements along its course.
Vietnamese communities living along the banks of the Mekong River are very concerned about the destructive impact of a new Sino-Cambodian dam on the region's ecosystem.
Once completed, the Sambor Dam will be the largest hydroelectric power station on the Mekong River. The Mekong provides food security to about 60 million people living in settlements along its course, which runs from the Tibetan plateau through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to the South China Sea. [read more]

THIS CLEAN ENERGY CHAMPION IS OUT TO BREAK VIETNAM'S COAL HABIT
21.05.2018 Jill Baker (Forbes) - In 2017, the city of Hanoi enjoyed just 37 days of clean air the entire year, with contaminant levels four times those deemed acceptable by the World Health Organization.
Vietnam is addicted to coal. Its economy has grown over 6%, on average, since the turn of the century, among the fastest of its Southeast Asian peers, yet that growth is fueled by coal, the most polluting fuel source on the planet.
This April, however, the decarbonization movement was given a boost of international recognition, as the esteemed Goldman Environmental Prize for grassroots advocacy was awarded to the first Vietnamese recipient, 42-year-old clean energy champion Nguy Thi Khanh, who hopes to end Vietnam's reliance on coal and persuade the country to take a greener approach.
Vietnam’s per capita carbon emissions quintupled from 1990 to 2013. Global warming is a major threat to Vietnam, where rising sea levels are predicted to swallow up nearly half of the Mekong Delta, the source of much of Vietnam’s food, in coming decades. [read more]

VIETNAMS LEISE KAFFEE-REVOLUTION
18.05.2018 Katharina Wecker (DW) - Die indigenen K'Ho wollen den Ruf Vietnams als Kaffeeproduzent verbessern, indem sie hochwertigere Biobohnen anbauen. Der zweitgrößte Kaffeeproduzent der Welt kann mehr als löslichen Kaffee, sagen sie.
Rolan Co Lieng schlendert durch ein Gewächshaus und kontrolliert die gelben und karamellbraunen Kaffeebohnen, die seit Monaten auf Netzen trocknen. Sie nimmt ein paar in die Hand und riecht daran. Sie werden bald geschält, geröstet und dann in Vietnam, Japan und Deutschland verkauft. [Weiterlesen]

STUDY SAYS CHINA-BACKED DAM WOULD DESTROY MEKONG
17.05.2018 By Stephen Wright (U.S. News & World Report) - BANGKOK (AP) — A Chinese-backed plan for Cambodia to build the Mekong River's biggest dam would destroy fisheries that feed millions and worsen tensions with Vietnam, the downstream country with most to lose from dams on the waterway, according to a three-year study commissioned by the Cambodian government.
The report, posted this month on the website of the U.S.-based organization that conducted the study, said the Sambor dam would "generate large power benefits to Cambodia, but at the probable cost of the destruction of the Mekong fishery, and the certain enmity of Vietnam." [read more]

POLLUTION CLOUDS VIETNAM'S RAPID ECONOMIC GROWTH
15.05.2018 Ha Nguyen (VOA) - HO CHIN MINH CITY — The air quality in Vietnam overall does not quite rival that in China or India when it comes to pollution. But it is bad and getting worse. And all that toxic air comes with a cost, whether in the money spent to upgrade to cleaner fuels, or in the health problems Vietnamese will suffer as a result.
Environmental economist Le Viet Phu says sooner or later there will be a price to pay. [read more]

'ADAPTING TO UNCERTAINTY' NEEDED IN FACE OF CLIMATE SHOCKS - EXPERTS
15.05.2018 by Zoe Tabary (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - LONDON - What do an Ethiopian coffee grower, a Colombian fisherman and a Vietnamese rice farmer have in common?
All three saw their income and way of life threatened by the devastating El Niño weather pattern in 2015-16, climate experts said at a London event Tuesday.
The last El Niño, a warming of ocean surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific that typically occurs every few years, was linked to crop damage, fires and flash floods in 2016. [read more]

CHINA WILL KEINEN PLASTIKMÜLL MEHR IMPORTIEREN — DAS HAT FOLGEN FÜR DEUTSCHLAND
14.05.2018 (Business Insider) - Die deutsche Recyclingbranche verspricht sich von dem chinesischen Importstopp für Plastikabfälle neue Geschäftschancen. „Für Kunststoffabfälle ist die Tür nach China zwar zu, aber Recyclate für die kunststoffverarbeitende Industrie sind begehrt — auch in China“, sagte Thomas Probst vom Bundesverband Sekundärrohstoffe und Entsorgung der Deutschen Presse-Agentur.
Plastikmüll geht zunehmend nach Vietnam oder Malaysia
Seit dem 1. Januar dürfen Plastikabfälle und andere Abfallsorten nicht mehr nach China eingeführt werden. Seither zeige sich, dass der Müll stärker nach Vietnam oder Malaysia exportiert werde, sagte Probst. [Weiterlesen]

DER MEKONG WIRD SALZIG UND FÜHRT WENIGER WASSER
03.05.2018 Manfred Rist (NZZ) - Die zahlreichen Staudämme am Mekong sind zwar gute Stromlieferanten. Doch sie verändern den Fluss grundlegend. Nicht nur im südlichen Delta machen sich die Menschen Sorgen.
«Die Dürreperioden sind schlimmer geworden, doch gleichzeitig kommt es häufiger zu Überschwemmungen. Der Fischfang nimmt ab, und das Flussbett erodiert. Derweil sinkt das Mekong-Delta ab, und Salzwasser dringt vom Meer her in die Anbaugebiete ein.» Mit diesen wenigen Sätzen fasst der WWF-Direktor Marc Goichot die jüngsten Entwicklungen im Mekong-Einzugsgebiet zusammen. [Weiterlesen]

PRÄPARIERTER THUNFISCH IN DER SCHWEIZ AUFGETAUCHT
29.04.2018 (Blick) - Vietnamesische Fischer haben Thunfisch illegal gefärbt, um mehr Geld verlangen zu können. Schweizer Lebensmittelkontrolleure haben die präparierten Fische auch in der Schweiz entdeckt.
Dabei griffen die Fischer auf einen chemischen Trick zurück, um den Fisch frisch aussehen zu lassen. Selbst, wenn er das nicht mehr ist. Das Bundesamt für Lebensmittelsicherheit und Veterinärwesen BLV stellte die Manipulation bei zwei untersuchten Thunfisch-Proben fest. Ursprungsland des Fisches war Vietnam. [Weiterlesen]

CAFFEINE BOOST - MAKERS OF BATTERY-POWERED COFFEE MIXTURE ARRESTED IN VIETNAM
24.04.2018 Khanh Vu (Reuters) - HANOI - Vietnamese police have arrested five people suspected of using battery chemicals to dye waste coffee beans, the Ministry of Public Security’s online newspaper, Cong An Nhan Dan, said on Tuesday, apparently passing the mixture off as black pepper.
The five, led by Nguyen Thi Thanh Loan, 43, were arrested on suspicion of violating food safety regulations after they were caught mixing coffee waste with a black, tar-like liquid made from manganese dioxide found in the batteries, the report said. [read more]

BEAMTE BESCHLAGNAHMEN 12 TONNEN GEFÄLSCHTEN KAFFEE MIT GEFÄHRLICHEN INHALTSSTOFFEN
20.04.2018 (ThailandTIP) - Dak Nong, Vietnam. Die vietnamesischen Behörden haben bei einem familiengeführten Kaffeeproduzenten ein Razzia durchgeführt und sind dabei auf zahlreiche schädliche Inhaltsstoffe gestoßen, mit denen der Kaffee gepantscht und gestreckt wurde. Neben Schmutz, Steinstaun und schwarzer Farbe wurden auch schädliche Inhaltsstoffe aus Altbatterien gefunden. [Weiterlesen]

SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS MAKE EFFORTS TO REDUCE PLASTIC WASTE, BUT THEY ARE STILL NOT ENOUGH
20.04.2018 (RFA) - Southeast Asian nations are taking measures to reduce pollution from plastic waste and promote the recycling of plastic products in keeping with the focus of this year’s Earth Day on April 22, but efforts in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar are falling short.
After China decided this year to stop accepting low-quality scrap plastic from the West and Japan for recycling, countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand that have attracted Chinese investors in plastic recycling, stepped in ad agreed to accept the messy work of processing plastic waste. [read more]

HUNDREDS OF VILLAGERS HOLD OFFICIALS HOSTAGE OVER VIETNAM POWER PLANT PLANS
20.04.2018 (RFA) - Hundreds of villagers in central Vietnam’s Binh Dinh province held five local officials hostage for a day before releasing them late on Friday to demand that authorities free more than a dozen people detained for holding an environmental protest, according to sources.
Residents of My Tho and My An communes, in Binh Dinh’s Phu My district, on Wednesday held a protest against what state media has reported are plans by Vietnam Trading Engineering Construction's (Vietracimex) to construct a wind power plant. [read more]

VINH DIOCESE HOLDS VIGIL FOR THE VICTIMS OF THE FORMOSA ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER
16.04.2018 J.B. An Dang (AsiaNews) - Hanoi – The Vietnamese government has admitted that the 2016 disaster killed at least 115 tonnes of sea fish, 140 tonnes of farmed fish and 67 tonnes of clams. Fishermen from the coastal provinces are still left without a livelihood. A peaceful Eucharistic worship is held in My Khanh parish for families who are losing members forced to leave.
Responding to an appeal by the Justice and Peace Commission, the parishes in the diocese of Vinh, Nghệ An province, held prayer vigils last night for the victims of the environmental disaster caused by the Taiwan-based Formosa Plastics Corporation.
In addition to Nghệ An, four other provinces – Hà Tĩnh, Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị and Thừa Thiên-Huế – are still reeling from a toxic spill in April 2016. [read more]

ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE, CORRUPTION AS POORER SOUTHEAST ASIAN STATES SHIP SAND TO SINGAPORE
13.04.2018 A commentary by Dan Southerland (RFA) - Sand has become a hot commodity needed to support construction work in Southeast Asia.
The demand for sand has sharply driven up prices for sand in recent years, drawing the attention of unscrupulous local officials, businessmen, and sand-dredging companies.
Unfortunately, the sand dredging has damaged the environment in several countries by disrupting sediment flows and fishing grounds.
Vietnam is a prime example of what can go wrong. [read more]

AQUATIC POLLUTION: STRENUOUS STRUGGLE OF LOCALS
25.03.2018 Kate Chesterson translation (VNTB) Life threatened by seriously affected aquatic pollution has pressed locals into continual demonstrations, regardless of the fact that some were summoned to work with police or even imprisoned. This has been one of the social affairs currently in the mass media spotlight in central Vietnam during the past few years….
Most recent has been the two times within a month, locals in My An commune, Phu My district, Binh Dinh province took to the street, blocking off National Highway 1A in protest against an aquatic product- processing project currently underway of Thao Loan Ltd. Company. [read more]

CALL FOR RELEASE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS JAILED OVER PROTESTING ON TOXIC SPILL IN VIETNAM
01.03.2018 (ClientEarth) - ClientEarth is joining the United Nations experts call to release individuals jailed for protesting against a discharge of toxic industrial chemicals into coastal waters of Viet Nam.
On 6 February 2018, Hoang Duc and Nguyen Nam Phong were respectively sentenced to 14 years in prison for writing about protests regarding the Formosa “marine life” disaster and 2 years for allegedly refusing to obey order of public officials while driving to a protest. Last year, two other bloggers Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh and Nguyen Van Hoa were also sentenced to jail for reporting about the spill.
ClientEarth lawyer Laurens Ankersmit said:
“The victims of the 2016 Marine Life disaster should have had proper access to justice against Formosa and the Vietnamese government. Instead, the Vietnamese government has jailed individuals speaking out about the disaster.” [read more]

CAMBODIA, LAOS LOSING THE LAST OF THEIR TREES
27.02.2018 By Dan Southerland (Asia Times) - Despite official pledges to halt the trade, smugglers in Cambodia and Laos are finding ways to illegally ship timber to neighboring Vietnam. The precious hardwood is often used in furniture factories that ship their products largely to China.
Powerful officials and Cambodian businessmen are reported to be supporting and profiting from the smuggling.
The wood is typically sold by the kilogram to middlemen before it is illegally exported to Vietnam, where it is used mainly by the local furniture industry, with most of the furniture being exported to China and Hong Kong. [read more]

SOUTHEAST ASIA IS IN THE GRIP OF A BIODIVERSITY CRISIS
23.02.2018 (Asian Correspondent) - RICH in wildlife, Southeast Asia includes at least six of the world’s 25 “biodiversity hotspots” – the areas of the world that contain an exceptional concentration of species, and are exceptionally endangered. The region contains 20 percent of the planet’s vertebrate and plant species and the world’s third-largest tropical forest.
Traditional medicine in Vietnam and China represents a threat to a huge array of species, but most notably the pangolin, which is the most trafficked animal on the planet. Sadly, the use of endangered species in medicine shows little sign of abating. [read more]

VIETNAM CLEAN WATER DWINDLING DUE TO LACK OF TREATMENT INFRASTRUCTURE
13.02.2018 (Water & Wastes Digest's) - Over the past two decades, Vietnam has seen their water reserves suffer drastic reductions. Due to this, average water consumption levels per person in 2025 are expected to be one fourth of what they were in 1990.
Part of the issue has arisen from a substantially increased population, which has led to a greater magnitude of wastewater being produced without the infrastructure to properly repurpose it. According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, there are more than 200 industrial zones throughout Vietnam, while few of those have sustainable wastewater treatment solutions.
Roughly 75% of wastewater produced daily is left untreated and promptly discharged into the country’s environment. [read more]

PHU YEN WIND FARM RECEIVES INVESTMENT GO-AHEAD
02.02.2018 (Modern Power Systems) - A project to build a 300 MW wind farm, to be named HBRE-Phu Yen Wind Power Plant has received investment clearance and will be constructed in Tuy An district, Phú Yên Province, in the south of  Vietnam. Total investment by the HBRE Phu Yen Company will be over VND9 trillion ($396.5 million).
HBRE Group has conducted research for over a year and constructed several wind stations to measure wind perfomance related to the feasibility of the project. The site has an average wind speed of 7-8 metre per second, which gives it huge potential for generating electricity [read more]

ALLTAG KLIMAWANDEL: LEBEN MIT TAIFUN UND DÜRRE IN VIETNAM
30.01.2018 Kerstin Schweizer (DW) - Vietnam kommt wegen des Klimawandels kaum zur Ruhe. Immer wieder wird das Land von Stürmen, Fluten und Dürren
heimgesucht. Die Menschen in den Dörfern versuchen, sich den Folgen, so gut es geht, anzupassen.
Die Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) arbeitet mit den Behörden vor Ort zusammen, damit die Menschen weniger abhängig vom wasserintensiven Reisanbau oder dem Fischfang werden. [Weiterlesen & Video ansehen]

IN VIETNAM, LIFE IN THE SHADOW OF CLIMATE CHANGE
30.01.2018 Kerstin Schweizer (DW) - Climate change has hit Vietnam hard. The country is beset by storms, floods and droughts. Those living in villages are trying to adapt to the new reality of extreme weather, but it's not easy.
The German development agency GIZ is working with local authorities to help Vietnamese people adapt to the new reality by reducing dependence on rice cultivation, which is water-intensive, and fishing — and promoting other ways to earn a living. [read more]

HANOI ENJOYED JUST 38 DAYS OF CLEAN AIR IN 2017, AS POLLUTION LEVELS INCREASED TO LEVELS SIMILAR TO BEIJING
30.01.2018 (SCMP) - Air pollution in Hanoi is due to a number of factors, including a rise in construction works, an increase in car and motorcycle use, and agriculture burning by farmers
Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, enjoyed little more than one month of clean air last year as pollution levels rose to match China’s smog-prone capital, Beijing, preliminary findings of a new report showed.
Annual average air pollution in Hanoi in 2017 was also four times higher than those deemed acceptable by the World Health Organisation’s air quality guidelines, according to a report by the Green Innovation and Development Centre (GreenID).
And the situation is likely to get worse, according to the Hanoi-based non-profit organisation. [read more]

VIETNAM: DIE ERSTEN KLIMAFLÜCHTLINGE
12.01.2018 Wolfgang Pomrehn (Telepolis) - Vietnam hat ein Problem. Ein Klimawandel-Problem. Der äußerste Süden des Landes, das Mekong-Delta, ist nicht nur für die Wirtschaft des Landes und die Versorgung seiner Bewohner von besonderer Bedeutung, es ist auch durch das ansteigende Meer besonders gefährdet. Das flache Schwemmland, das sich westlich und südwestlich von Ho-Chi-Minh-Stadt von der kambodschanischen Grenze bis zur Küste erstreckt, liegt nämlich nur wenige Meter über dem derzeitigen Meeresspiegel, wie man sich unter anderem hier überzeugen kann.
18 Millionen der insgesamt knapp 93 Millionen Vietnamesen lebten dort. Im letzten Jahrzehnt sei die Bevölkerung bereits um eine Million zurückgegangen. [Weiterlesen]

CLIMATE CHANGE IS DRIVING MIGRATION FROM VIETNAM’S MEKONG DELTA
11.01.2018 By Alex Chapman and Van Pham Dang Tri (Climate Home) - Saltwater intrusion and drought are destroying crops in one of the most fertile places on earth, prompting an exodus of farmers.
The Vietnamese Mekong Delta is one of Earth’s most agriculturally productive regions and is of global importance for its exports of rice, shrimp, and fruit.
The 18m inhabitants of this low-lying river delta are also some of the world’s most vulnerable to climate change. Over the last ten years around 1.7m people have migrated out of its vast expanse of fields, rivers and canals while only 700,000 have arrived. [read more]