Vietnam’s urban environment, especially in big cities, is facing numerous challenges, including air and water pollution, solid waste treatment and flooding.

The Southern Institute of Ecology has discovered three new plant species unknown to the world in the Son Tra Nature Reserve during a three-year research and revaluation of its biodiversity.

 Several companies have expressed keen interest in developing waste-to-power projects in HCMC given the high potential in the sector.

 Noise pollution in urban areas, mostly caused by traffic, factories and construction sites, has become more severe in recent years, affecting the quality of life.

Vietnam has launched its first energy efficiency network in HCM City.

 The Ministry of Industry and Trade said a shortage of oxygen was responsible for the recent mass fish deaths in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum.

The Ministry of Environment has asked the People’s Committees of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue to maintain strict supervision on waste discharges from the Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh.

 Ho Chi Minh City authorities have agreed to build a large-scale project on producing electricity from waste, aiming to cut the volume of buried waste by 50 percent by 2020. 

The Empire Group and ViDe Bridge Limited Company of Vietnam will implement a project producing electricity from urban solid waste using advanced technology in the central city of Da Nang.

 During a tour to Ba Bo Canal yesterday Chairman of People’s Committee in HCM City Nguyen Thanh Phong asked the relevant agencies must make more efforts to reduce pollution in Ba Bo Canal.

 The one-horn Java rhino whose scientific name was Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus, was shot dead at the national park in 2010.

 Some 40 black shanked douc langurs (Pygathrix nigripes), divided into three herds, have been found living on Chua Chan Mountain in southern Dong Nai Province’s Xuan Loc District.

With the monsoon approaching, the condition of hundreds of reservoirs in the central provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh and Quang Tri has increased concerns of possible danger.

The Electricity of Vietnam Group’s Power Generation Corporation 3 is submitting an application for a licence to dump waste mud into the sea off the coast of Binh Thuan province, a company official has said.

 Tens of black-shanked douc langurs (Pygathrix nigripes), an endangered species, have been spotted in Chua Chan mountain in Suoi Cat commune of Xuan Loc district, the southern province of Dong Nai.

Vietnam’s new forest areas rose by 4.5% year-on-year to 90,700 hectares in the first six months of 2017 thanks to favourable weather conditions, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Vietnam’s Bach Ma National Park in Thua Thien Hue province has been selected for the construction of the world’s first saola breeding centre, which is scheduled to be inaugurated in late 2017 or early 2018.

 The popular tourism destination of Phu Quoc Island is facing increasing environmental pollution.

 Compensation for residents affected by last year’s marine environmental incident in the four central provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue has been mostly completed.

Coal-fired power plants remain prioritized in the context when Vietnam has a vital need for an increasing amount of power for national development. However, coal-fired power plants pose high risk of environmental pollution.