On the morning of June 4, Hanoi City People's Committee coordinated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to organize an inter-regional conference on the coordination mechanism of the Capital Region in environmental management.
Speaking at the Conference, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment Le Cong Thanh said that in the past time, along with the strong urbanization process, the Capital Region has been facing many environmental pollution problems, notably air pollution, water pollution in some inner-city and inter-provincial rivers, along with limitations and inadequacies in solid waste and domestic waste management.
Environmental issues are all inter-regional, not limited by administrative boundaries. To effectively solve these problems, it is not possible to rely solely on Hanoi's efforts, but it is necessary to have synchronous and close coordination between ministries, sectors and neighboring provinces and cities.
The Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Environment highly appreciated Hanoi's proactive development of a working program, drafting regulations on coordination of the Capital Region in environmental management; inviting relevant ministries, branches and localities to exchange, discuss, and agree on solutions to coordinate actions effectively, towards the goal of improving environmental quality throughout the region.
He requested delegates to focus on contributing opinions on the contents of the regional linkage mechanism. At the same time, he expressed his wish that additional comments would help improve the legal framework, technical tools to support and draft regulations, ensuring feasibility when applied to the reality of environmental management in the Capital Region.
At the Conference, delegates reported an overview of the current environmental situation and key environmental issues of the Capital Region; summarized the Draft Regulation on coordination of the Capital Region in environmental management.
The opinions raised all agreed that the development and signing of the Coordination Regulation contributes to creating a legal corridor for localities to share responsibilities, resources and information in environmental protection. The regulation is built on the principle of not generating new organizational structures, not changing the functions, tasks and authority of localities. Instead, the coordination mechanism will aim to strengthen regional linkages, improve the efficiency of state management, and at the same time ensure harmony of interests and responsibilities between participating parties.
According to Vice Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee Bui Duy Cuong, to bring the regulations into life, localities in the Capital Region need to immediately implement a number of tasks. In which, localities build regional environmental databases; implement inter-regional environmental inventory; develop environmental monitoring projects; form an environmental forecasting and warning system; develop an environmental plan for the Capital Region; develop inter-regional environmental incident response scenarios; ensure water security and control the risk of waterlogging and cross-border pollution.
Based on the exchanged opinions, discussions and consensus at the Conference, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, Hanoi City People's Committee and People's Committees of Phu Tho, Thai Nguyen, Bac Ninh, Hung Yen, Ninh Binh provinces signed the Regulation on coordination of the Capital Region in environmental management.
The signing ceremony was witnessed by the National Assembly's Committee for Science, Technology and Environment, leaders of Hanoi City, leaders of localities in the Capital Region and delegates attending the Conference.
The signing of the Regulation is an important step to establish a regular, synchronous, data-based and scientific coordination mechanism; contributing to improving forecasting, warning, pollution control, and response to environmental risks; ensuring water security, improving air quality, and effectively using resources and environmental infrastructure.
