Decree 131 of the Government in 2025 determines the authority of local authorities at 2 levels in the field of state management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment.
Article 28 of the Decree stipulates that the People's Committees at the commune level are allowed to announce environmental incidents according to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 125 of the Law on Environmental Protection; Issuing an environmental incident response plan according to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 127 of the Law on Environmental Protection.
Requesting compensation for environmental damage caused in the area under its management; requesting the Provincial People's Committee to organize the collection and appraisal of data and evidence to determine environmental damage caused by pollution and degradation according to the provisions of Point a, Clause 2, Article 131 of the Law on Environmental Protection.
Publicly publicize the environmental incident response plan at the commune level on the commune's Electronic Information Portal; send it to local agencies and direct superiors according to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 110 of Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP dated January 10, 2022 of the Government detailing a number of articles of the Law on Environmental Protection...
Article 29 of this Decree stipulates the 5 powers of the Chairman of the People's Committee at the commune level in the environmental field as follows:
- Receive environmental registration for projects and facilities subject to the provisions of Clause 4, Article 41 of the Law on Environmental Protection, except for the cases specified in Clause 1, Article 26 of this Decree.
- Direct incident response, mobilize forces, equipment, and means to respond to environmental incidents, appoint commanders and loudspeakers for commune-level environmental incidents occurring in the area according to the provisions of Point b, Clause 4, Article 125 of the Law on Environmental Protection; direct incident response, mobilize forces, equipment, and means to respond to incidents, appoint commanders and loudspeakers for commune-level waste incidents occurring in the area according to the provisions of Point a, Clause 2, Article 8 of the Regulations on waste incident response issued with Decision No. 11/2025/QD-TTg dated April 23, 2025 of the Prime Minister.
- Establish a surprise inspection team without prior notice as prescribed in Point e, Clause 2, Article 163 of Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP dated January 10, 2022 of the Government detailing a number of articles of the Law on Environmental Protection.
- Determine waste incidents, direct waste incident response according to the provisions of Point a, Clause 1, Article 8 of the Waste Incident response Regulations issued with Decision No. 11/2025/QD-TTg dated April 23, 2025 of the Prime Minister.
- Establish a working group to determine the cause of the commune-level waste incident immediately after the incident occurs according to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 9 of the Waste Incident response Regulations issued with Decision No. 11/2025/QD-TTg dated April 23, 2025 of the Prime Minister.
