| Abstract | Rapid growth of population and urban industrial activities in Hanoi have generated serious
management problem in the city's sewerage and drainage system (for brevity henceforth
referred as simply sewerage system). Regulatory and economic measures are basic tools for
managing the sewerage system as for any other environmental management task. The
environmental training and education (suasive measures) is also important for supporting the
key management measures. With the above in view, this study investigated the scope of
greater and effective application of these three sets (i.e. regulatory, economic, and suasive) of
management measures to improve Hanoi's sewerage system. The results of this investigation
are summarized below.
Because of economic constraints and poor environmental management, most industrial and
domestic wastewater in Hanoi has long been directly discharged into the sewerage system
without treatment. The amount of wastewater currently discharged into this system is about
300,000m3/day. The amount of untreated wastewater from factories discharged into open
channels include toxic materials such as lead, cadmium, chromic, mercury, arsenic. Their
effects on public health and degrading the life quality of the city residents are serious.
The review of the management measures of sewerage system in Hanoi city for this study was
conducted by collecting information from secondary and primary sources. Although elements
of all three major sets of management measures are found to exist, their application by the
managing authorities is insufficient and inappropriate. The regulatory measures are based on
the Command and Control (CAC) principle. The National Law on Environmental Protection
(Articles 15 and 26) and the Law on Water Resource are two key sources of such regulatory
measures. Regulations for management and protection of Hanoi's sewerage and drainage
system including the provision of penalties for violation of sewerage system regulations are
issued pursuant to the decision 6032/QD-UB. The latter is the basic source of major regulatory
measures to manage the sewerage system of this city. Besides, the Vietnam Water Standards,
passed by MOSTE (1995), play an important role in sewerage system management.
Economic measures based on the principle of Market Based Incentives (MBis), of necessity,
need to be accompanied the regulatory measures. Such measures considered in this study are
subsidies, user charges and financial enforcement incentives. What is found include: subsidies
are in the form of grant and soft loan from the central government to the authorities such as the
Hanoi Sewerage and Drainage Company (HSDC) for maintaining and managing the sewerage
system; the user charge for drainage and sewerage service is a 10% surcharge on the charge
for water consumption; other charges are product charge, emission charge that are used to
restrict pollution by industries in the city; the financial enforcement incentives are used in the
form of penalties for violations of regulatory measures on sewerage and drainage system with
punishment levels ranging from 20,000 VND to 500,000 VND for individuals and from
2,000,000 VND to 10,000,000 VND for organizations.
The study has used eight evaluating criteria (clarity, practicability and efficiency, incentives
for improvement, fairness, cost-effectiveness, enforceability, concordance with institutional
framework, and moral consideration) to assess the management measures that are now applied
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in the sewerage system management in Hanoi city. This assessment shows that the currently
prevailing legal and regulatory framework is incomplete with overlapping institutional
responsibilities and they bear signs of inconsistencies with related regulations and laws. For
example, floodwater and wastewater from the Hanoi area (management task of HSDC) is
discharged into the Red River and Nhue River (the latter is managed by MOARD). The
questionnaire survey results also confirm that the regulations on the sewerage system and
environmental laws are too general, and difficult to implement.
The findings of the study show that fragmentation of responsibilities among agencies lead to
inefficient regulations. The sewerage system includes 210 km sewers, whereas, HSDC
manages 140 km. More than 60 km is thus left for maintenance by local authorities. Violations
of regulations are always occurring for lack of enforceable policy. The standards system is not
clear. The standard B level is required for all water bodies around Hanoi, including both
drinking water and other water sources.
Revenue from water supply charge and the surcharge on sewerage system do not adequately
reflect supply and operation costs. In 1999, expenditure for the sewerage and drainage system
management was 27,038 million, whereas, total revenue from general taxation, user charges of
environmental services, water supply and sewerage system together was only 22,605 million
VND. Remaining expenditure for these services come from grant or soft loans of national
government. Price of water consumption is very low (1,500 VND!m\ which leads to waste of
water and increase in wastewater volume into the sewerage system. Collection for water
supply bill and surcharge for the sewerage service are ineffective because weakness in the
collection system. Thus, the system is not cost-effective. The punishment levels are set too low
to be effective as disincentives to potential polluters.
The other set of measures that need to accompany the regulatory and economic measures is
suasive measures. The findings on the state of applying these measures are as follows: some
environmental education and awareness raising (BEAR) programs are in place; example is that
of the Clean and Green Hanoi campaigns, directed by TUPWS. This has been implemented
with cooperation of HSDC, URENCO, HWBC, factories in the city and local government and
communities. The Hanoi Women's Union has also been active and effective in environmental
awareness raising campaign by involving the housewives. However, these programs are
fragmented and lack continuity. Weak knowledge base and weak links with public policy lead
to lack of concordance in the institutional framework.
The study's recommendations for improvement of sewerage management measures include: to
clarify the standards system and regulations; to specify each agency's (e.g. MOARD, and
HSDC) responsibilities; to strengthen the enforcement of regulations on sewerage system;
monitoring programs to reduce overlapping tasks in the sewerage system management; and to
increase practicability of the management measures and efficiency in their implementation.
The economic measures should be reviewed for setting charges and fines at appropriate levels,
and to reduce subsidies to achieve cost-effectiveness. The BEAR programs should be promoted
through coordination among MOSTE, DOSTE, HSDC to ensure continuation of training
programs and environmental awareness campaign. HSDC should strive to increase the level of
funding in their annual operating budget for human resource development to improve skills of
professionals, managers and equipment operators. |