Guidance on collection and treatment of wastewater in Vietnam

Guidance on collection and treatment of wastewater in Vietnam (Image from Internet)

1. Guidance on collection and treatment of wastewater in Vietnam

The following is the guidance on collection and treatment of wastewater in Vietnam pursuant to Article 86 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 as follows:

- New urban areas, concentrated residential areas; manufacturing, business, and service establishments, concentrated business, service, and production areas, industrial clusters must have separate systems for collection and treatment of wastewater separate from rainwater drainage systems, except in special cases specified by the Government of Vietnam.

- Management of urban and concentrated residential wastewater is regulated as follows:

+ Domestic wastewater generated from organizations and households must be collected and connected with the wastewater collection and treatment system;

+ Wastewater generated from production, business, and service activities in urban areas must be collected and preliminarily treated before connecting to the urban wastewater collection and treatment system; wastewater after preliminary treatment must meet the regulations of the urban area, concentrated residential area, or local government regulations;

+ Wastewater generated from production, business, and service activities in urban areas without centralized wastewater treatment facilities must be collected and treated to meet environmental protection requirements before being discharged into receiving sources.

- Management of wastewater from production, business, and service activities is regulated as follows:

+ Wastewater from manufacturing, business, and service establishments in concentrated production, business, and service areas, and industrial clusters must be collected and preliminarily treated before connecting to the industrial wastewater collection and treatment system as required by the investor constructing the concentrated production, business, and service areas, or industrial clusters to ensure the treated wastewater meets environmental protection requirements;

+ Wastewater from manufacturing, business, and service establishments located outside urban areas, concentrated residential areas, production, business, and service areas, or industrial clusters that cannot be connected to the wastewater collection and treatment system must be collected and treated to meet environmental protection requirements before being discharged into receiving sources.

- Domestic wastewater generated from organizations and households in non-concentrated residential areas must be collected and treated on-site to meet environmental protection requirements before being discharged into receiving sources.

- The provincial people's committee is responsible for the following:

+ Investing in and encouraging investment to build urban and concentrated residential wastewater collection and treatment systems within their jurisdiction for which the State is responsible for investment under the provisions of law;

+ Issuing a timeline for land fund allocation, investment, or encouraging investment in the construction of urban and concentrated residential wastewater collection and treatment systems in cases where there is no such system;

+ Issuing a timeline and support policies for organizations and households in urban areas and concentrated residential areas to construct facilities and install wastewater treatment equipment on-site to meet environmental protection requirements before discharging into receiving sources in cases where there is no land allocated for building wastewater collection and treatment systems in urban areas and concentrated residential areas formed before the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 took effect;

+ Issuing a timeline and support policies for collecting and treating on-site domestic wastewater generated from organizations and households in non-concentrated residential areas.

2. Regulations on wastewater treatment system in Vietnam

Regulations on wastewater treatment system in Vietnam pursuant to Article 87 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 are as follows:

- Wastewater treatment system must ensure the following requirements:

+ Technology appropriate to the type and characteristics of the wastewater to be treated;

+ The capacity of the treatment system must match the maximum wastewater volume generated;

+ Wastewater should be treated to meet environmental protection requirements;

+ Operate the wastewater treatment facility following the correct technical procedures;

+ Have a plan to prevent and respond to environmental incidents for wastewater treatment system; discharge points must have coordinates, clear signage, and marking for convenient inspection and monitoring of discharge.

- Sludge from wastewater treatment system must be managed according to the provisions of law on solid waste management; sludge that contains hazardous elements exceeding the prescribed thresholds must be managed according to the provisions of law on hazardous waste management.

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