The Provincial People's Council requested Hoang Thi Loan Textile Joint Stock Company to overcome environmental problems.

Comrade Cao Thi Hien - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Vice Chairwoman of the Provincial People's Council as head of the monitoring delegation. Photo: Mai Hoa

No environmental protection procedures yet

Hoang Thi Loan Textile Joint Stock Company operates in the textile and garment industry with a total output of 19,000 tons of various types of yarn per year; attracting nearly 1,000 workers, mainly female workers.

In recent times, the unit has been conscious of implementing regulations on environmental protection; innovating technology, increasing productivity, improving the working environment and policies for employees.

However, as a long-term invested production facility with old production lines, combined with the toxic nature of the profession, environmental pollution and risks of occupational safety and hygiene are still occurring.

Mr. Phan Xuan Hoi - Deputy General Director said that in the development strategy, when there are resources, the enterprise will move the factory to a new location. Photo: Mai Hoa

Through practical supervision of the enterprise's fiber production line, the supervision team recorded that the noise at the fiber production line was very loud and cotton dust was generated at the place where raw cotton was received as well as the source of waste cotton.

This was confirmed by Deputy Head of the Department of Environmental Protection Dinh Sy Khanh Vinh (member of the monitoring team), the results of recent environmental monitoring by the authorities all showed that they exceeded the permitted standards, especially noise. And consecutively in 2017 and 2018, the City People's Council continued to record the opinions of Ben Thuy voters reflecting on noise and cotton dust emitted from the factory, affecting the living conditions of the people.

Mr. Dinh Sy Khanh Vinh also added that, up to this point, the enterprise has not completed the environmental protection procedures, specifically, the detailed environmental protection project has not been approved by the competent authority and according to the law, if the enterprise does not have this procedure, it will be forced to stop operating.

The noise in the yarn factory is loud, while most workers do not use noise-proof labor protection. Photo: Mai Hoa

Regarding this content, Head of the monitoring delegation Cao Thi Hien requested Hoang Thi Loan Textile Joint Stock Company to coordinate with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and Vinh City People's Committee to complete all procedures on environmental protection in accordance with legal regulations.

The Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council suggested that businesses need to organize dialogues with people to share and understand each other better, and at the same time continue to implement measures to prevent noise and absorb cotton dust, first of all, build high walls to reduce noise and dust.

The head of the monitoring team also noted that businesses should pay attention to building warehouses for hazardous waste and regularly report fully to the authorities according to regulations; and pay attention to collecting industrial waste generated.

Unsafe working environment

Along with the environment outside the factory, through monitoring, the Provincial People's Council working group also noted that the working environment of workers in some departments also posed many problems. With the noise and cotton dust in some factories, it was felt that it was large, however, the awareness of using labor protection of workers was still arbitrary, especially noise-proof labor protection, which most workers did not use.

The monitoring team learns about policies from the workers. Photo: Mai Hoa

From that reality, the Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council said that, in parallel with fully providing labor protection equipment as well as promoting workers to voluntarily use labor protection equipment, businesses also need to have binding regulations for them to comply with, in order to improve workers' health.

On the other hand, in addition to regular health check-ups for workers, it is also necessary to pay attention to occupational disease examinations for workers, combined with health care measures and reasonable job arrangements for workers with health types 4 and 5.

Enterprises also need to pay attention to labor safety training according to regulations; pay attention to improving salary regimes for employees, policies for female workers...