Updates on Industrial Wastewater
management in Vietnam
Tran Thi Thu Anh
Institute of Environmental Science,
Ministry of Natural resources and Environment,
Vietnam
The 18th WEPA Annual Meeting
8 February 2023

1. Overview of industrial waste water as pollution sources
Decree 08/2022/ND-CP, a list of 16
types of industrial production withhigh risk of causing environmental
pollution (Appendix II).
The name of industries:
1. Mining and enriching metal ores;
2. Metallurgical;
3. Production of paper, pulp, andfiberboard (MDF, HDF);
4. Productionofchemicals,
chemical fertilizers, and plantprotection drugs;
5. Dyeing (fabric, yarn), washingand grinding;
6. Tanning;
7. Oil refinery;
8. Coal thermal power, cokeproduction, coal gasification,
nuclear power;
9. Waste recycling treatment;
10. Plating and cleaning metal
surfaces with chemicals;
11. Manufacture of batteries andaccumulators;
12. Clinker production;
13. Processing rubber latex;
14. Processing tapioca starch;
15. Processing sugar cane;
16. Seafood processing

AccordingtoMinistry
Industry and Trade, 2021:

of▪

397 IPs and 968 Industrial clusters
have been established.

▪

290 IPs (occupation ratio 73%) and730 Industrial clusters (occupationratio 76%) are in operation.

▪

Craft villages: ~ 500 villages1. Overview of industrial waste water as pollution sources
Status of treatment industrial waste water▪

Industrial zones: 75% of operating industrial zones (218/290) completed centralized effluent
treatment plants – CETPs (treated 60% of total wastewater discharged).

▪

Common capacity of centralized effluent treatment plants -CETPs: 1,000 – 2,000 m3/day.

▪

34 IPs are building centralized effluent treatment plants.

▪

Industrial clusters: 19,3% (141/730) of operating industrial clusters have centralised wastewater
treatment system (MIOT, 2021).
Craft villages: few have wastewater treatment system installed.

▪

(JICA, 2018; VEA, 2018)

2. Regulatory framework for industrial waste water management
Legal system
Law onEnvironmental
Protection 2020
(LEP 2020)

Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP
Detailing a number of articles of
the Law on Environmental
Protection 2020
Decree No. 53/2020/ND-CP
stipulating environmental
protection fees for wastewater

The Criminal Codeof Vietnam 2017

Chapter IX: Crime of polluting
the environmentCircular No. 02/2022/TTBTNMT Detailing a number ofarticles of the Law on
Environmental Protection❑ Decree
45/2022/ND-CP
stipulating
administrativeviolations,sanctioning
forms, levels of punishment, remedial
measures for administrative violations,competence to make minutes of violations
administration, and competence tosanction administrative violations in thefield of environmental protection.

Clause 2, Article 72 of the LEP 2020, the general requirements for wastewater management:▪

Waste water must be collected and treated to meet environmental technical standards before being
discharged into the receiving source;▪

Wastewater is encouraged to be reused when it meets the requirements of environmental protection
and water use purposes;▪

Wastewater containing hazardous environmental parameters exceeding the prescribed threshold must
be managed in accordance with regulations on hazardous waste management;▪

The discharge of treated wastewater into the environment must be managed in accordance with theprovisions of the law on environmental protection, in accordance with the load-bearing capacity of thereceiving environment.

2. Regulatory framework for industrial waste water management
Article 86. Collection and treatment wastewater

In IPs or industrial clusters

Wastewater
discharged fromproduction,business andservice activities

preliminarily treated before
being discharged into industrial
wastewater collection andtreatment systems

to ensure that wastewater istreated up to environmental
protection requirements

Out of IPs or industrial clusters

be collected and treated up toenvironmental protection
requirements before being
discharged into receiving waters

Article 87. Wastewater treatment systems
1. For a wastewater treatment system, the following requirements must be met:a/ The system’s technologies suit the types and characteristics of wastewater subject to treatment;b/ The system’s treatment capacity suits the maximum volume of generated wastewater;c/ The system can treat wastewater up to environmental protection requirements;
d/ Wastewater treatment facilities are properly operated according to technical processes;

đ/ The system is accompanied with an environmental incident prevention and response plan; discharge
points have their coordinates identified and are marked with clear signboards and signs so as to facilitate
inspection and supervision of wastewater discharge.

2. Regulatory framework for industrial waste water management
Decree No. 53/2020/ND-CP stipulating environmental
protection fees for wastewate as follows:▪

Environmental protection fees for industrial wastewater:oIn 2020, the fee will be VND 1,500,000/year.

oFrom January 1, 2021 onward, the following
schedule applies

Chargedpollution
parameters
1 COD
1 From 10 to less than 20 4.000.000
2 TSS
3 Hg
2 From 5 to less than 10 3.000.000
4 Pb
5 As
3Under 52.500.000
6 Cd

N Average volume ofFeeNo
3o wastewater (m /day) (VND/year)▪

Fee (VND/kg)
2.0002.400
20.000.000
1.000.000
2.000.000
2.000.000

Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP: Detailing a
number of articles of the Law on
Environmental Protection 2020.
- The list of projects, businesses, andfacilities must to implement automatically,continuously monitoring;- The frequency of periodic wastewater
monitoring (Clause 3, Article 97) is:oevery 3 months for cases whereenvironmental impact assessment isrequired;oevery 6 months for the remainingcases.

The variable charge amount is calculated for each pollution ❑ Decree
45/2022/ND-CP
stipulating
parameter according to the following formula:administrative violations, sanctioning
forms, levels of punishment, remedial
Concentration
Total volume
measures for administrative violations,Pollutionof pollutant
of wastewatercompetence to make minutes ofparameterparameters inFeedischarged
violations
administration,
and=xchargewastewater x 0,001 x
into the(VND)
competence to sanction administrativerate(mg/l)
receivingviolations in the field of environmental(VND/kg)
source (m3)protection.

3. Industrial effluent standards
Water environmental quality standard system
Surface water and ground water quality standard
1

QCVN 08:2015/BTNMTon surface water quality

02 columns of limit values and 33 parameters

2QCVN 09:2015/BTNMTon ground water quality

01 column of limit values and 32 parameters

3QCVN10:2015/BTNMT on sea water quality

Standards for coastal, inshore and offshore

Waste water quality standards
1 QCVN 14:2008/BTNMT on domestic
waste water quality
2 QCVN 04:2016/BTNMT on livestock
waste water quality
3 QCVN 40:2011/BTNMT on industrial
waste water

Columns oflimit values
02Parameters

020602

3611

The regulation QCVN 40:2011/BTNMT provides for the maximum values ofpollution parameters of industrial wastewater being discharged into receivingwaters. Consists of 2 columns of limit values and 33 parameters.

3. Industrial effluent standards
National technical regulation QCVN 40:2011/BTNMT industrial wastewater standards

93. Industrial effluent standards
National technical regulation on other industrial wastewater standards:
No
1

Waste water quality standards
National Technical Regulation on waste water of ethanol fuelproduction

2 National Technical Regulation on Textile dyeing industrialwastewater
3 National Technical Regulation on Paper and pulp industrial
wastewater
4 National Technical Regulation on seafood processing industrial
wastewater
5 National Technical Regulation on natural rubber processing
industrial wastewater
6 National Technical Regulation on Steel processing industrial
wastewater
7 National Technical Regulation on medical wastewater
8 National Technical Regulation
wastewateron petrol warehouse

9 National Technical Regulation on offshore oil and gas works
Environmental Science Institute - ESI

10 National Technical Regulation on the effluent from livestockand stores

No of standards
QCVN 60MT:2015/BTNMTQCVN 13MT:2015/BTNMTQCVN 12MT:2015/BTNMTQCVN 11MT:2015/BTNMTQCVN 01MT:2015/BTNMT
QCVN
52:2013/BTNMT
QCVN
28:2010/BTNMT
QCVN
29:2010/BTNMT

QCVN
35:2010/BTNMT11
QCVN 62MT:2016/BTNMT4. Status of effluent monitoring/inspection
ORGANIZATION MODEL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING SYSTEM
from1994

MONRE

Units of theMinistryEnterprise

Local

Goverment
Other Ministries

People's Committees

Department ofEnvironmental
Pollution Control

DONRE

Environmental Protection SubDepartment, Environmental
monitoring centers

Environmental
monitoring centersowners of investment
projects or production,business or service
establishments

63 units wereestablishedThe responsibility for periodic monitoring activities
GovernmentLocal▪
▪
▪

Carry out periodical monitoring in theprovince;
Monitoring frequency: 3-12 times/year•

Water environment monitoring in 12 river basins, 03 key
economic regions nationwide;▪
▪

Monitoring frequency: 3-8 times/year;
Implement monitoring programs in service of environmental
inspection and monitoring at production facilities, IPs;
Carry out monitoring of environmental hotspots.

Participate in monitoring activities forenvironmental inspection and monitoring at ▪
production facilities..

4. Status of effluent monitoring/inspection
News Board

Wastewater Environmental Monitoring Database

Automaticcontinuousenvironmental
monitoring data
Periodic from Department ofenvironmental Environmental
management isPollution Control

carried out byother Ministries
and sectors
Periodic
Wastewater
environmental
Environmental
data from
MonitoringothersKết quả QTMT định Database
Ministries

kỳ do TCMT thựchiện

Center forprocessing
environmental
monitoring
dataDatabase
CenterWebpage

Automatic
continuous
environmental
monitoring datafrom DORE-Số liệu QTMT nước (nước mặt, nướcPeriodicthải, nước biển, nước dưới đất)environmental datafrom Department ofEnvironmental
Pollution Control

ReportPublication of environmental monitoring data

4. Status of effluent monitoring/inspection
Exploiting environmental monitoring data
❑ Environmental Quality Index (AQI, WQI);❑ Map of water and air quality environment;❑ Report on the current state of the environment;❑ Model for forecasting
environmental quality.

andwarningofAutomatic monitoring system
Industrial zones: 38,6% of industrial zones
have automatic monitoring system.
Industrial
clusters:
No
monitoring system installed.

automatic

Craft villages: No automatic monitoring
system installed

Water quality map of river basin

4. Status of effluent monitoring/inspection❑ 2020, The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment inspected a total of 6,794 establishments,industrial parks and industrial clusters in the whole country. Detected and handled nearly 3,053
enterprise and administrative violations were fined up to VND 484.864 billion VND.

❑ In the period of 2017-2021, the industry has inspected and inspected 1,376 establishments andindustrial parks, thereby handling violations of legal regulations on environmental protection for 493
establishments with a total amount of more than 108 billion VND.
❑ 80% of the violating enterprise have completely overcome the violations according to the inspection
conclusions.

5. Measures for non-compliance of effluent quality in VietnamSanctions:❑ Warning: for acts of discharging wastewater in excess of the technical regulation on waste by lessthan 1.1 times (equivalent to 10% exceeding the technical regulation);❑ Administrative sanctions:▪ Fine: up to 2 billion VND for each violation;▪ Suspend the work related to the waste discharge activities of the enterprise;▪ Apply one or more remedial measures.
❑ Criminal penalties:▪ Fine amount: From 3 billion to 20 billion VND (depending on the extent of damage);▪ Temporarily suspending operations: The term is from 06 months to 36 months;▪ Permanent suspension of operations;▪ Imprisonment: 3-7 years

6. Issues and challenges, future targets/plans for properindustrial wastewater management❑ Compliance regulations of enterprises are still a formality. The operation of centralized
wastewater treatment systems is coping and not really effective❑ WWTPs are only coping, operating when there is an inspection by the agency, so very
few businesses are connected to the centralized collection system.
❑ The construction and operation of a system to continuously connect, transmit andreceive automatic wastewater monitoring data require high information technology
infrastructure and enormous investment costs.
❑ Lack of funds, land, rental of infrastructure services, etc., hinders the processing
process. The quality of treated water from the system must meet column B standards(not for domestic purposes).
❑ Due to the nature and scale of small industrial clusters and craft villages, often
interspersed in residential areas with different characteristics in terms of the natureand discharge of wastewater, wastewater treatment planning faces many difficulties.
Up to now, there is no model to treat craft village wastewater effectively; .
❑ The cost of wastewater treatment services is still low 800 VND/m3 (0.034 USD/m3)
but this is a very low figure, only meeting about 10% of the actual treatment cost.

THANK YOU!
Tran Thi Thu Anh
Environmental Science Institute, MONRE, Vietnam
Email: anhtran.xp@gmail.com