# Box 9. MDG Goat Seven: Ensure Environmental Sustainability

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## Vietnam Development Goal: Ensure environmental sustainability

Target 1: Extend forest cover to 43 percent by 2010 (from 33 percent in 1999); ‘ Target 2: Ensure that 60 percent of rural population will have access to clean and safe water by 2005 and 85 percent in 2010. This should be the case for 80 percent of urban people in 2005. Target 3: Ensure there are no slums and temporary houses in all towns and cities by 2010 Target 4: Ensure that all waste-water in towns and cities is treated by 2010 Target 5: Ensure that all solid waste is collected and disposed of safely in all towns and cities by 2010 Target 6: Air and water pollution must attain national standards by 2005 Source: Socialist Republic of Vietnam (2002) Challenges for implementing the environmental strategy. The first and biggest challenge for this VDG is implementation of the government’s NSEP. This requires concerted efforts to strengthen capacity in government agencies at the central and local level, creating opportunities for community participation, enforcing laws by expanding the choice of regulatory instruments and incentives, and allocating substantial resources to this plan.

While the first target only refers to extending forest cover, the CPRGS includes two indicators for monitoring forest quality. These are: the area of ‘special-use’ (protection) forest to be preserved, and the biodiversity rate of these protected areas. A weakness in Vietnam is the lack of a reliable system for monitoring forest cover. This could probably be improved by focusing more on quality than quantity and making more use of aerial photography and GIS, and by better coordination of data collection among the different agencies.

The second target aims to reach a safe and clean drinking water coverage of 60 percent of the rural population by 2005 and 85 percent by 2010. Although the institutional, financial and policy environments for this indicator are largely in place, Vietnam is unlikely to meet this goal. From 1990 to 2000, the overall safe water coverage increased 8 percent (from 48 to 56 percent). Even if population growth were zero, to achieve the 2010 level, coverage would have to increase an average of 5 percent each year between 2005 and 2010. Sri Lanka, Nepal and Paraguay were the countries with the greatest increases in access to safe water during the last decade, yet these countries averaged only about 1.7 percent growth in coverage annually.’ Analysis presented in the VDGs background paper shows that a 80 percent coverage in 2015 is probably a more realistic target (UNDP, 2002a). This would still require doubling the current rate of improving access to safe water (from a 0.8 percent to a 1.6 percent net increase per year), but this is more feasible given other countries’ experiences.

Targets 3-5 reflect the due attention given to urban development issues in the CPRGS, which stresses the need to develop policies for urban housing development for the poor, and minimise health risks for the poor by adopting pollution control measures. In the CPRGS the Government announces it will develop a national urban development strategy and this would enable the actions outlined to be addressed in a consistent manner while promoting balanced urban development. The government now acknowledges the problem of social exclusion in the urban areas and the lack of access of unregistered urban migrants to basic services and that labor migration and household registration policies need to be reviewed. This presents an important step forward for addressing the pressing urban poverty issues.

TMwww.oecd.org/dac/indicators 21 August 2001.

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