Vietnam enacted Prime Minister’s decision on responding to waste incidents

In Vietnam, on 18th March, 2020, the “Prime Minister’s Decision No.09/2020/QD-TTg on measures to respond to waste incidents” was enacted. This decision was made to prepare and organize the response to environmental pollution incidents caused by wastewater, gas emission and solid waste, as well as remediation and recovery for incidents. It doesn’t, however, cover waste incidents caused by natural disasters and occurred offshore.

The original text of this decision can be downloaded from
http://vbpl.vn/TW/Pages/vbpq-toanvan.aspx?ItemID=141556&Keyword=

Decision Composition

• Chapter I: General Provisions
  • Article 1: Scope of application
  • Article 2: Regulated entities
  • Article 3: Waste incidents and principles of response for them
  • Article 4: Classification of waste incidents
• Chapter II: Preparing for Waste Incident Response Measures
  • Article 5: Planning of waste incident response plan and training on response measures
  • Article 6: Preparation of recourses and equipment for waste incident response measures
  • Article 7: Preparation for implementation of the waste incident response plan
• Chapter III: Implementation of Waste Incident Response Measures
  • Article 8: Receiving and processing information on waste incidents
  • Article 9: Waste incident response measures inside facilities
  • Article 10: Waste incident response measures outside facilities
  • Article 11: Investigation of the cause of waste incidents
  • Article 12: Providing information on waste incidents
  • Article 13: Completion of waste incident response measures
• Chapter IV: Environmental Remediation and Recovery after Waste Incident Response Measures
  • Article 14: Requirements and responsibilities for environmental remediation and recovery
  • Article 15: Approval of the environmental remediation and recovery plan
  • Article 16: Implementation of environmental remediation and recovery
  • Article 17: Completion of environmental remediation and recovery
• Chapter V: Financial Systems and Community Participation in Waste Incident Response Measures
  • Article 18: Finance for waste incident response measures
  • Article 19: Community participation in waste incident response measures
  • Article 20: Recommendation of waste incident response activities
• Chapter VI: Implementation Responsibility
  • Article 21: Responsibility of the national commission for incidents, disasters and rescue, and the local agencies for natural disaster prevention and rescue guidance
  • Article 22: Responsibility of ministries, provincial-level agencies
  • Article 23: Responsibility of local government
  • Article 24: Responsibility of facilities

Main contents

This decision applies to state management agencies, industrial parks, industrial zones, export processing zones, high-tech parks, manufacturing, trading and service facilities, waste treatment facilities, or organizations and individuals involved in waste incident response.

Waste incidents are categorized into four levels according to their severity: low, medium, high and disaster. Waste incidents response measures are implemented according to the following principles:

• Proactive prevention.
• Developing response plans and preparing for incidents response.
• Bearing the cost for response measures and environmental remediation/recovery after incidents by the organization/individual causing them.

Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), in cooperation with the relevant ministries and agencies, shall implement incident response measures and environmental remediation and recovery for incidents classified as “high” or “disaster”. In addition, in cooperation with relevant ministries, agencies directly under the government, and local people’s committees, MONRE is also responsible for conducting a public information campaign and establishing a national database on waste incidents.