Dao said the government must also enforce a strong penalty system that applies to both individuals and companies that cause water pollution, while creating favorable conditions for community water monitoring networks to exist and to channel information to relevant government agencies.
“When possible, we work to push for community water co-management,” she said.
“We set up community river monitoring groups, train communities in the legal aspects of water management, and conduct research and use the findings to persuade local authorities to deal with water problems.”
Nguyen Thi Kim Oanh, a professor at the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand, said that while Vietnamese law includes comprehensive regulations on the release of waste water into rivers, “the problem is law enforcement.” “We need to measure the pollution. If it exceeds the legal limit, we need to have strong punishments,” Oanh said.
“With big plants, we need to have strong measures to make them follow international regulations and Vietnamese law.” But Oanh also called on the government to build treatment plants that would lessen the cost of processing waste water and to create greater awareness about the disastrous effects of pollution.
“People's awareness is also important. If they don’t understand that a river is polluted, they will continue to add waste to the water, and within five to 10 years, the river will die.