For many years, the people's activities of dredging pond have been rampant and out of control. There are households in the process of dredging pour the sludge directly into rivers and streams, causing the water environment to be seriously polluted and contradictory between people, especially among the improved extensive shrimp farming households and industrial farms. It is because industrial shrimp farmers regularly renovate ponds and lagoons after each farming season, while households with extensive shrimp farming often directly take water without letting water flow through settling ponds and have no conditions to treat water. Since then, the problem of water pollution in aquaculture areas has become more and more serious.
In order to control the dredging activity of aquaculture ponds, the People's Committee of Bac Lieu province issued Decision No. 14/2018/QD-UBND regulating environmental protection in aquaculture activities in Bac Lieu province. This provision prescribes the contents of environmental protection in aquaculture activities; rights and responsibilities of state management agencies, responsibilities of organizations, households and individuals in the dredging of soil and mud for renovating of aquaculture ponds and lagoons. Accordingly, organizations, households and individuals who need dredging to improve aquaculture ponds by mechanics must report to the Commune People's Committee (where there is a pond to be dredged) to be considered and guided environmental protection. Before dredging mud and soil, renovating the lagoon pond people must inform households around the affected area so that the households can be active in production and preventing the risk of disease spread...
Regarding aquaculture conditions, it is required that organizations and individuals must ensure the location of construction of aquaculture establishments according to planning; Aquaculture establishments must ensure technical conditions and standards on aquaculture, veterinary hygiene and environmental protection standards prescribed by law; Use of food and veterinary drugs to meet the standards prescribed by the law on veterinary medicine. For environmental protection in aquaculture activities, requirements are that organizations, households and individuals engaged in aquaculture activities in the province must comply with the planning. Land use plans and detailed aquaculture development planning and plans are already approved by competent authorities. At the same time, investment facilities and projects in the field of aquaculture must comply with the law on environmental protection.
For intensive, semi-intensive and extensive aquaculture projects, investment projects on intensive and semi-intensive aquaculture with water surface area of 10 hectares or more, investment projects for extensive aquaculture of 50 ha or more must make environmental impact assessment reports or detailed environmental protection schemes and submit them to functional agencies for evaluation;
It is only allowed to implement aquaculture activities when the environmental impact assessment report is approved or the detailed environmental protection project is approved. As for semi-intensive and intensive establishments and farming areas of tiger shrimp and white leg shrimp, the infrastructure conditions must be ensured according to the provisions of Section 2.2 of QCVN 02-19: 2014/BNNPTNT - National technique standard on brackish shrimp farming facilities - Conditions to ensure veterinary hygiene, environmental protection and food safety issued together with Circular No. 22/2014/TT-BNNPTNT dated July 29, 2014 issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on promulgating the national technical regulation on aquaculture conditions, specifically that There must be a settling pond, a wastewater treatment pond, a material storage area, a septic sanitation ... For the remaining projects and farms, the intensive or semi-intensive aquaculture project has a water surface area of less than 10 ha, extensive aquaculture projects for less than 50 ha must have a plan for environmental protection or a simple environmental protection scheme submitted to the competent authority for certification. At the same time, the remaining farms are encouraged to have a plan of environmental protection, the simple environmental protection scheme submitted to competent authorities for certification in accordance with the law. Aquaculture establishments, households and individuals are encouraged to monitor the above-mentioned norms on water source quality in order to ensure the quality of water sources meeting the requirements of aquaculture activities.
In terms of conditions for dredging soil and sludge for improvement of ponds and lagoons, it is necessary to arrange appropriate sludge and other waste storage areas, ensuring sufficient capacity for sludge and other waste, keeping the water clean settled before discharging it to the receiving source, having dredging tools suitably with the dredging method. Stocking activities must ensure the right schedule recommended by the functional industry. Supplying water into the pond and discharging waste water must be consistent with the regional water allocation schedule and the provisions of the law on wastewater discharge. At the same time, wastes in aquaculture must be collected and treated to meet environmental standards before being discharged into receiving sources, combining scientific research and application of technical advances in sustainable aquaculture.
Regulations on management and time of dredging ponds and lagoons for shrimp farming have many new points to suit reality, creating more favorable conditions for people than the previous decisions so people fully concur.
In the Decision, it is clear that only households with a suitable area to handle sludge and water in the process of dredging are allowed to carry out dredging without discharge into rivers and canals. However, up to now dredging soil and mud slurry to rehabilitate aquaculture ponds and lagoons in Bac Lieu province has not been checked, controlled and strictly managed by the functional and governmental authorities, causing the environment polluted and difficulties for aquaculture activities. In fact, the situation that people dredge ponds then discharge waste directly into rivers and streams take place regularly, which seriously affects the environment. The reason is that many households have small productive land so they make the most of the area to make shrimp ponds without waste storage pond for treatment; a part of people are not aware that pumping mud and discharging waste into rivers or small sludge storage area, leaking out to be the main cause of water pollution, contributing to creating epidemics cause prolonged death of shrimp ... Meanwhile, the inspection is still facing many difficulties, the budget is still insufficient, the inspection force is mainly part-time ...
Water pollution is the current acute problem. In order to contribute to protecting the water environment, limiting epidemics and increasing efficiency for shrimp farmers, the farmer compliance with regulations on the dredging pond is extremely important to minimize environmental pollution, contributing to ensuring successful farming.
Nhu Nguyet