Recently, in Ward 10, District 6 HCMC, the emission from a workshop was too much that a resident living near by packed the pollution components in an envelop and sent it to the Central Party and State office in HCMC which made an official opening the envelop faint immediately. This reflects the urgency and the necessity to have sufficient sanctions to reduce air pollution from facilities and industrial manufacturers.

At the consultation workshop on a draft decree on air pollution charge organized in HCMC last week, Dr. Nguyen Van Tai, Vice Director of Department of Environment (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment) said statistics from ADB indicated the proportion of the money spent and health effect of air pollution is 5% - 20% of GDP in developing countries yearly.

The yearly economic lost due to health effect of air pollution in several Asia cities is 329 mil USD on average (in Manila), 880 mil USD (in Shanghais), 424 mil USD (in Bangkok), 100 mil USD (in Jakarta). The estimated figure in Hanoi is 1 billion VND everyday.

According to the recent report of Department of Natural Resources and Environment, in HCMC, the air pollution concentration in residential areas has been worse in the first seven months in 2007 in comparison with the same period last year: ozone concentration has increased by 1.12 times. The traffic air pollution components including CO has increased 1.44 times and PM10 has increased 1,07 times. The lead parameters has been 1,25 times and NO2 has been 1,15 times. There are about 300.000 cars and more than 2,56 mil motorbikes in HCMC which contribute the most to the air pollution besides many industrial zones with some dozen thousands of manufacturers emitting poisonous components to the air. Mr. Nguyen Dinh Tuan, Director of HCMC Environment Protection Agency (HCMC Department of Natural Resources and Environment) said the decree should also extend to the emission sources from steel, bronze smelting furnaces and cement factories rather than take into account only fossil fuel consumption sources.

Source: Viet Hoang, Nguyen Thanh. MONRE Website, 22 August 2007.