The number of days with harmful air quality in Hanoi increased in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period of last year, according to a study conducted by the Hanoi-based Green Innovation and Development Centre (GreenID).

 Twenty countries registered to participate in the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)’s symposium for the Asia-Pacific region on response to climate change, to be held in Ho Chi Minh City from May 11-13.

Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha has proposed an emergency solution to avoid further devastation in the aftermath of the landslide that destroyed 14 houses last month in An Giang.

 Fretting over the impacts of wastewater discharged from the Lee & Man Vietnam paper mill project on the aquaculture production of local people, Hau Giang Province will build an environmental monitoring station next to the project.

 Ho Chi Minh City’s districts and Mekong Delta provinces are facing risks of soil submersion, studies have shown.

 Despite breaking the law by allowing the destruction of 116 hectares of forest in Phu Yen Province, the local authorities have only described their violations as ‘careless’. 

 Despite guard booths by forest rangers set up at all roads leading to the forest, many big trees have been stolen from the Cuc Phuong National Park in Thanh Hoa Province.

 A year after it caused mass fish deaths by discharging untreated waste directly into the sea, an inspection has found Formosa having addressed 52 of 53 environmental violations.

 Construction of a reservoir to collect water leaking from the Hon Rọ dumping site in the central Khanh Hoa Province’s Ninh Hoa Commune must be completed soon, the People’s Committee has said.

 Con Dao Island is currently implementing marine turtle conservation and is home to the largest population of natural sea turtles in Vietnam.

 People in the central province of Quang Binh have released rare animals back into the wilds of nearby Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park.

 Prolonged dry weather has significantly increased the risk of forest fires in the southernmost province of Ca Mau, the provincial Forest Protection Department reported.

 The northern coastal province of Quang Ninh has asked local authorities to urgently examine and determine the reason for the mass oyster deaths in Tien Yen district.

 The Mekong Delta may lose half of its land to erosion because of rampant sand exploitation.

The first industrial waste power generation plant in Vietnam was officially put into operation at the Nam Son Waste Treatment Complex in Hanoi’s outlying district of Soc Son on April 24.

 More than 1,000 volunteers from the US Embassy, associations, organisations and universities, joined hands to pick up garbage in Thong Nhat Park Saturday morning to mark Earth Day here.

 Phu Yen Province approved the destruction of nearly 116 hectares of forest to build a golf course despite having no legal documents to go ahead.

 Ho Chi Minh City’s authorities are struggling to reach the target of having wastewater treatment systems at all export processing zones, industrial parks and industrial complexes by 2020.

 Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang has stated that the US companies and Monsanto in particular need to hold responsibility for assisting efforts to recover from Agent Orange (AO)/dioxin consequences in Vietnam. 

 A seminar introducing Korean energy technology to Vietnamese enterprises took place in Ho Chi Minh City on April 20, attracting representatives from nearly 60 firms, research institutes and State management agencies from the two countries.