The Provincial Party Standing Committee held its regular meeting in February.

Also attending were comrades: Nguyen Van Thong - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee; Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; comrades representing a number of Central Party Committees, members of the Provincial Party Standing Committee and a number of departments and branches.

Overview of the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION HAS MADE IMPORTANT PROGRESS

At the working session, the Provincial Party Standing Committee listened to and commented on the draft report summarizing 3 years of implementing Resolution No. 08-NQ/TU dated December 8, 2017 of the Standing Committee on strengthening environmental protection in Nghe An province for the period 2017 - 2020, with a vision to 2025.

After 3 years of implementing Resolution 08-NQ/TU, environmental protection work in Nghe An province has achieved some important results.

The leadership, direction and implementation of environmental protection tasks have received more attention from Party committees and authorities at all levels from the provincial to the grassroots. Many environmental protection solutions and effective methods have been proposed and implemented, bringing positive results.

The movement of the whole people participating in environmental protection has been widely launched from communes, wards and towns, in which the collection of household waste and cleaning of village roads and alleys have been focused on and implemented quite systematically and effectively. The forest coverage rate of the whole province has increased from 58% in 2018 to 58.5% in 2020.

The inspection and examination of environmental protection content has received attention from Party committees and authorities at all levels and achieved many important results, thereby promptly detecting and handling many violations in the field of environmental protection in the province.

Comrade Nguyen Van Thong - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee spoke at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

The collection and treatment of hazardous waste has received more attention. We have focused on zoning and establishing treatment projects to overcome pollution in areas where pesticides remain; the number of facilities polluting the environment and causing serious environmental pollution has been gradually reduced, and no new facilities causing environmental pollution have been established.

Regarding the results of implementing the goals, tasks and solutions of Resolution 08, by the end of 2020, 8/19 targets set out in the Resolution had been completed and exceeded.

However, after 3 years of implementation, 11 important targets set out in the Resolution have not been achieved, such as: The rate of industrial clusters with wastewater treatment systems; the rate of solid waste collection and treatment in rural areas...

Through analyzing the practical situation, speaking at the meeting, comrade Nguyen Van Thong - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee suggested that in the process of approving production and business projects with high emission risks, it is necessary to be very strict, from the initial design to the project construction process, to the operation, there must be clear, certain, careful certificates and licenses, in accordance with technical requirements, and not affecting the environment.

Comrade Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee spoke at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung also pointed out the fact that after 3 years of evaluating Resolution 08, 11/19 criteria have not been met. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze and clarify the reasons, whether the Resolution set high targets or there were no measures to achieve the targets during the implementation process.

On the other hand, one reason is that the cost of implementing environmental protection work for projects is usually about 30%, so there are businesses that reduce this cost, or have built items to serve environmental protection work but the business does not implement them during operation.

Based on the discussion and analysis, on behalf of the agency in charge of drafting the draft, Comrade Nguyen Thi Thu Huong - Member of the Standing Committee, Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department, proposed that in the coming time, a new resolution on environmental protection work in the province should be issued to suit the practical situation of the Law on Environmental Protection taking effect from January 1, 2022, the situation of climate change and other pollution issues such as dust and noise that Resolution 08 has not mentioned.

Comrade Nguyen Thi Thu Huong - Member of the Standing Committee, Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department spoke at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

The development of a new resolution will be associated with the implementation of the Action Program to implement the Resolution of the 19th Provincial Party Congress and the 13th National Party Congress.

DEVELOPMENT MUST GO WITH ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

Concluding this content, Provincial Party Secretary Thai Thanh Quy assessed that after 3 years of implementation, the appropriateness and necessity of issuing Resolution No. 08 has been shown; however, the results achieved have not been as expected.

Emphasizing the importance of environmental protection, the Provincial Party Secretary agreed to issue a new Resolution on this work in conjunction with climate change response to meet the requirements of the new period.

However, to build a new Resolution that ensures quality and effectiveness, the work of evaluating the implementation results of Resolution 08 needs to be upgraded from a preliminary review to a final review.

Accordingly, the provincial government needs to direct sectors and levels to systematically review tasks and targets of the resolution, and at the same time forecast and plan a new system of targets and tasks in accordance with the Law on Environmental Protection, the climate change situation, etc. in the period up to 2025, with a vision to 2030.

Along with that, the new Resolution on environmental protection must provide solutions to effectively handle household waste in districts, cities and towns in the province through planning, calling for investors with financial capacity, good technology and reasonable prices.

Comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee concluded the content of 3 years of implementing Resolution No. 08. Photo: Thanh Duy

Along with that, the Provincial Party Secretary suggested that the new Resolution must continue to emphasize the province's viewpoint: development must be associated with environmental protection. Accordingly, for investment projects, it is necessary to resolutely and strictly implement inspection and supervision work. If environmental protection requirements are not met, they will not be put into operation; at the same time, investors who may impact or affect the environment must not be called upon at all costs; and mineral exploitation must be minimized.

On the other hand, it is necessary to properly and strictly implement environmental protection work of industrial clusters, industrial zones, and small-scale handicraft villages according to standards; therefore, it is necessary to review and invest in a synchronous system.

The head of the Provincial Party Committee emphasized: The new resolution needs solutions to build a widespread movement among union members, association members and people on awareness of waste collection and classification to serve the waste recycling process. Inspection, supervision and monitoring work must be carried out resolutely, while promoting the supervisory role of the community in environmental protection.

In particular, in order for the Resolution to come into effect, during the development process, it is necessary to carefully consider and clearly identify the resources for implementation in order to set the set targets; and once the targets are issued, they must be implemented because this is an issue that affects the environment and people's health.

Also during the working session, the Provincial Party Standing Committee agreed on a plan to allocate funds from the Central budget to support overcoming damage caused by rain and storms in the province in September and October 2020.