New regulations on the sale and distribution of chemical products used in waste water treatment have recently been established by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
Under the new regulations, the chemical products must include information on origin of country and date of processing.
In addition, sellers of such substances must register with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment before putting them on the market.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade said the use of chemicals in waste water treatment must follow the Chemical Safety Usage Law.
Phung Chi Sy, deputy head of the Institute of Tropical Technology and Environment Protection, said that both sellers and buyers lacked sufficient information about these chemical products, most of which were imported.
The price of the products was quite low, the origin unknown, and the quality poor.
Even though most chemical products sold in HCM City have a trade name, they lack labels that describe the ingredients, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
Most of the chemical products, including hazardous ones, are found at HCM City’s Kim Bien Market in District 5. They are sold without advice on how to be used from environmental-consulting companies.
Hoang Thi Ngoc Ngan of the city’s Department of Health’s Centre for Preventive Medicine said the improper usage of such chemicals was affecting the soil and water supply, causing disease among humans and animals.
The sale of such products had been difficult to control because localities lacked the proper high-tech equipment to test the products, said Nguyen Trung Viet, manager of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment’s Solid Waste Management Division.
Under the new regulation, sellers must apply for licences to sell chemical products specifically used for the treatment of waste water, said Sy of the Institute of Tropical Technology and Environment Protection.
Each chemical product must also contain clear instructions on usage, he said, adding that local authorities were responsible for checking the origin of products.
Nguyen Trung Viet, manager of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment’s Solid Waste Management Division, said the country should invest in advanced technologies and facilities to analyse the content of chemical products.
He said only foreign-made technology had been able to detect the content of poorly made chemical products sold on the market for waste water treatment.
