Water resources policy and administrative management

Located from 15057 to 16013 lattitute north and from 107049 to 108020 longitude east, and with a population of over 846,000 inhabitant, Danang is a city of dynamic development in Central Vietnam. With 30 km of sea coast, Danang has a fishing ground of relatively high fish reserves and an exploiting capacity of over 200,000 tonnes of seafood products/a year. Tho Quang ward (Son Tra district) is 10 km from Danang centre in the northeast. Seafood exploitation, processing and services is a key industry in Tho Quang with the participation of 2,136 households (38% of the total households). Tho Quang has to deal with serious pollution. The waste water from seafood processing industrial zone is released directly into the environment without any treatment, causing serious environmental pollution and threatening the survival of coastal marine creatures. Air pollution is caused by the decomposition process of agents in waste water and the waste products from food processing. Consequently, a very unpleasant and strong odour pervades the air. Also, some solid waste (waste products) in food processing is reused to produce feed for cattle while some is thrown into garbage and causes filthy smell. However, the environment protection fees for water waste for enterprises are very low while the costs for treatment of similar quantity of waste water are much higher. Consequently, this has made enterprises and businesses unwilling to invest in treating waste water at the site, instead of directly releasing it into the environment. Therefore, to solve the pollution problem, the project is initiated with the long-term aim to contribute to solving environmental problems for the sustainable development of the seafood processing area in Tho Quang (Son Tra, Danang) and to reduce marine environment pollution. Its specific objectives are (i) to build regulations for community management in order to promote the important role of the community in solving environmental problems in the seafood processing area in Tho Quang, and to increase the awareness, knowledge and technical capacity in environmental treatment, (ii) to design and implement the model of clean seafood processing and reduction of environmental pollution and (iii) to evaluate, draw experience and compile technical materials on the performance model with an aim to duplicate the model in other localities with similar conditions.

Vietnam