Pollution and waste

Sixty-nine million people were exposed to toxic haze as a result of last year’s devastating wildfires in Indonesia, a new study has found. Little is known about the health impacts of Indonesia’s annual fires, which spread uncontrollably because the country’s vast peat swamp zones have ...

Environment Ministry spokesman Sao Sopheap said on November 17 that residents of Derm Sleng village in Chbar Ampov would not be allowed to continue disposing of their trash into the Tonle Sap river, with his ministry asking City Hall officials to end the practice. Yesterday, ...

The HCMC Department of Natural Resources and Environment has granted more than 5,000 registry books to the owners of hazardous waste sources. Official reports show the amount of hazardous waste has been increasing steadily year after year, from 250 tons per day in 2011 to ...

Plastic firms in Việt Nam face fierce competition and risk being acquired by foreign companies, experts said on November 2 at a conference in HCM City. Phạm Văn Bắc, deputy head of the construction ministry’s department of building materials, said the plastic industry had the potential ...

National Assembly members have proposed that the government impose tougher measures in managing the distribution and use of dangerous chemicals so they can be brought under control. NA members expressed their wish on October 31 when debating the NA’s Standing Committee oversight of social and environmental ...

Vietnamese businesses are continuing to import outdated Chinese technology despite repeated warnings by scientists that the country could become a ‘technology landfill’. The latest report of the Ministry of Science & Technology shows that technologies used in most industries in Vietnam are outdated, causing serious pollution ...

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has recommended revoking the licences of a chicken farm and a brick factory in Xaythany district, Vientiane, after learning they were causing pollution and affecting nearby communities. Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Sommad Pholsena told the National Assembly ...

Global study reveals huge number of children breathing toxic fumes more than six times over safe limits, while billions are affected by air pollution that exceeds guidelines. Three hundred million of the world’s children live in areas with extreme air pollution, where toxic fumes are more ...

The Vietnamese government has been accused of a slow response, and a lack of transparency and accountability, in the first independent report into the environmental disaster that killed millions of fish off the central coast earlier this year. The report by the unregistered civil society organisation, ...

A coal-fired power plant in southern Shan State that was shut down two years ago due to residents’ complaints may be reopening, despite the opposition of the local community, villagers say. They are already accusing local officials of breaking their promises. Test operations at the plant, ...