Vietnam: In environmental protection, what is the incident level into which environmental incidents in a business establishment are classified?
- In environmental protection, what is the incident level into which environmental incidents in a business establishment are classified?
- What are the responsibilities of Provincial People’s Committees in environmental incident response in Vietnam?
- What do the contents of the assessment of the state of the environment after environmental incidents in Vietnam include?
In environmental protection, what is the incident level into which environmental incidents in a business establishment are classified?
Under Article 123 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020:
Classification of environmental incidents by scale and stages of response to environmental incidents
1. The classification of an environmental incident shall be based on the extent of environmental pollution or degradation at the time of discovering the incident in order to determine an authority responsible for direction and response, including:
a) In-establishment environmental incident: environmental pollution or degradation occurs within a business establishment;
b) District-level environmental incident: environmental pollution or degradation occurs beyond an establishment and within a district;
c) Provincial-level environmental incident: environmental pollution or degradation occurs beyond a district and within a province;
d) National-level environmental incident: environmental pollution or degradation occurs within 02 provinces or more or across the nation.
2. Stages of environmental incident response include:
a) Preparing for environmental incident;
b) Organizing environmental incident response;
c) Remediating environment after incident.
Under the above regulations, environmental incidents in Vietnam are classified into:
- In-establishment environmental incident: environmental pollution or degradation occurs within a business establishment;
- District-level environmental incident: environmental pollution or degradation occurs beyond an establishment and within a district;
- Provincial-level environmental incident: environmental pollution or degradation occurs beyond a district and within a province;
- National-level environmental incident: environmental pollution or degradation occurs within 02 provinces or more or across the nation.
Thus, environmental incidents in a business establishment are in-establishment environmental incidents.
What are the responsibilities of Provincial People’s Committees in environmental incident response in Vietnam?
Under Article 122 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020:
Responsibility for environmental incident response
1. Every investment project/business owner shall perform the following tasks:
a) Comply with requirements concerning plans, measures and equipment for environmental incident prevention and response as prescribed by law;
b) Carry out regular inspection and adopt managerial and technical plans and measures to eliminate and reduce the risk of environmental incidents.
2. Provincial People’s Committees shall:
a) investigate, statistically report and assess the risk of environmental incidents within their provinces;
b) develop database and compile and publish information about sources that are likely to cause environmental incidents within their provinces as prescribed by law;
c) develop and direct district- and communal-level People’s Committees to develop capacity for environmental incident prevention and response within their provinces.
3. Ministries and ministerial agencies shall respond to environmental incidents as prescribed in Point a Clause 1 Article 127 of this Law.
Thus, the responsibilities of Provincial People’s Committees in environmental incident response in Vietnam are specified as follows:
- Investigate, statistically report and assess the risk of environmental incidents within their provinces;
- Develop a database and compile and publish information about sources that are likely to cause environmental incidents within their provinces as prescribed by law;
- Develop and direct district- and communal-level People’s Committees to develop capacity for environmental incident prevention and response within their provinces.
What do the contents of the assessment of the state of the environment after environmental incidents in Vietnam include?
Under Clause 2, Article 73 of Circular 02/2022/TT-BTNMT:
Contents of environmental remediation plan
1. The environmental remediation plan shall include all contents specified in Clause 3, Article 126 of the Law on Environmental Protection.
2. The contents of assessment of state of the environment after environmental incidents shall include:
a) Scope, nature (type), pollution level of surface water, groundwater (if any) of the incident area;
b) Scope, nature (type), pollution level of soil environment (if any) of the incident area;
c) Area and coverage of natural forest ecosystem, coral reef, seagrass bed (if any) of the incident area.
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Thus, according to regulations, the contents of the assessment of the state of the environment after environmental incidents in Vietnam include:
- Scope, nature (type), pollution level of surface water, groundwater (if any) of the incident area;
- Scope, nature (type), pollution level of soil environment (if any) of the incident area;
- Area and coverage of natural forest ecosystem, coral reef, seagrass bed (if any) of the incident area.
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