Legal framework of the water sector in Vietnam: Achievements and Challenges

Since 1986 and especially during the early 90s, environmental protection has become a constitutional principle in Vietnam as regulated by Articles 17 and 29 of the 1992 Constitution. The first Law on Environmental Protection, passed by the National Assembly on December 27, 1993 created a foundation for environmental legislation becoming an important field in Vietnam’s legal system. In the following, Vietnam enacted its very first Law on Water Resources (No. 08/1998/QH10) in January 1999 aiming to provide a foundational framework for managing the water sector in Vietnam. In recent years, the legislative framework on water resources management has further developed. Important water-related regulations on the guidance and implementation of the Law on Water Resources have been issued and often amended to meet the requirements of the country’s development, and its international integration. To date, Vietnam’s legislation on the water sector consists of a complex system of legal documents issued by different state agencies. Though legislation of water sector management in Vietnam has greatly improved during the last decade, it has obviously not yet come to full fruition. Hence, the paper intends to provide an overview of achievements as well as problems and conflicting issues within Vietnam’s current water sector management legislation

Problems of Law Enforcement in Vietnam: The Case of Wastewater Management in Can Tho City

In order to ensure the sustainable exploitation and use of water resources Vietnam has started to elaborate a legal framework of the water sector during recent years. This new legal framework includes a large set of regulations that deals with waste water management, including the treatment and disposal of waste waters from industries, agriculture and households. The protection of water resources, particularly with respect to water quality and the prevention of water pollution, is a crucial and serious issue due to the country’s rapid development and industrialization. Nevertheless, the quality of the current regulations (issued by both national and local levels) on water resources management in Vietnam does obviously not meet reality requirements. Furthermore, there is evidence that the enforcement of the national framework encounters various problems when it comes to the implementation by local governments. In recent years, more than 300 legal documents required to implement the Law on Water Resources have been developed as secondary regulations to protect and use water resources in a sustainable manner in different legal aspects. Among these 300 legal documents, over 60 are related to wastewater and water pollution management. Moreover, at local level important regulations on water resources protection, particularly regulations on water pollution management have been developed to implement national regulations at sub-national scales of government. In Can Tho City, located in the Mekong Delta, 100 water-related legal documents have been issued by the People’s Committee of the city that claim creating a comprehensive legal system on water resources protection for the city’s jurisdiction. By using Can Tho City as a case study, this paper intends to analyze contradictions and conflicts between the national and local regulations, specifically in the field of wastewater management. It will be discussed how the provincial government of Can Tho City enforces the national law on water resource management and how national regulations are interpreted and newly defined in the context of local governance. Furthermore, the study aims at contributing to the debate on how to create a comprehensive and coherent legal framework of the water sector at both national and local scale of government

Legal framework of the water sector in Vietnam: Achievements and Challenges

Since 1986 and especially during the early 90s, environmental protection has become a constitutional principle in Vietnam as regulated by Articles 17 and 29 of the 1992 Constitution. The first Law on Environmental Protection, passed by the National Assembly on December 27, 1993 created a foundation for environmental legislation becoming an important field in Vietnam’s legal system. In the following, Vietnam enacted its very first Law on Water Resources (No. 08/1998/QH10) in January 1999 aiming to provide a foundational framework for managing the water sector in Vietnam. In recent years, the legislative framework on water resources management has further developed. Important water-related regulations on the guidance and implementation of the Law on Water Resources have been issued and often amended to meet the requirements of the country’s development, and its international integration. To date, Vietnam’s legislation on the water sector consists of a complex system of legal documents issued by different state agencies. Though legislation of water sector management in Vietnam has greatly improved during the last decade, it has obviously not yet come to full fruition. Hence, the paper intends to provide an overview of achievements as well as problems and conflicting issues within Vietnam’s current water sector management legislation

Legal framework of the water sector in Vietnam: achievements and challenges: Policy paper

Since 1986 and especially during the early 90s, environmental protection has become a constitutional principle in Vietnam as regulated by Articles 17 and 29 of the 1992 Constitution. The first Law on Environmental Protection, passed by the National Assembly on December 27, 1993 created a foundation for environmental legislation becoming an important field in Vietnam’s legal system. In the following, Vietnam enacted its very first Law on Water Resources (No. 08/1998/QH10) in January 1999 aiming to provide a foundational framework for managing the water sector in Vietnam. In recent years, the legislative framework on water resources management has further developed. Important water-related regulations on the guidance and implementation of the Law on Water Resources have been issued and often amended to meet the requirements of the country’s development, and its international integration. To date, Vietnam’s legislation on the water sector consists of a complex system of legal documents issued by different state agencies. Though legislation of water sector management in Vietnam has greatly improved during the last decade, it has obviously not yet come to full fruition. Hence, the paper intends to provide an overview of achievements as well as problems and conflicting issues within Vietnam’s current water sector management legislation.Kể từ năm 1986, đặc biệt là những năm đầu của thập kỷ 90, bảo vệ môi trường đã trở thành nguyên tắc hiến định (được quy định tại Điều 17 và 29 Hiến pháp 1992). Luật Bảo vệ môi trường đầu tiên được Quốc hội thông qua ngày 27 tháng 12 năm 1993 đã đặt nền móng cho việc hình thành hệ thống pháp luật về môi trường ở Việt Nam. Tiếp theo đó, ngày 20 tháng 05 năm 1998, Quốc hội nước Cộng hòa xã hội Việt Nam khóa X, kỳ họp thứ 3 đã thông qua văn bản luật đầu tiên về tài nguyên nước - Luật Tài nguyên nước số 08/1998/QH10 hình thành một nền tảng pháp lý cho hệ thống pháp luật bảo vệ nguồn tài nguyên nước ở Việt Nam. Trong những năm gần đây, hầu hết các văn bản dưới luật quan trọng và cần thiết cho việc hướng dẫn thi hành Luật Tài nguyên nước đã được ban hành và không ngừng được sửa đổi, bổ sung nhằm đáp ứng nhu cầu phát triển và hội nhập quốc tế của đất nước trong nhiều lĩnh vực khác nhau. Tuy nhiên, khung pháp lý hiện hành về tài nguyên nước ở Việt Nam bao gồm một hệ thống các văn bản quy phạm pháp luật khá phức tạp, nhiều tầng nấc, được ban hành bởi nhiều cơ quan có thẩm quyền khác nhau. Mặc dù hệ thống pháp luật về tài nguyên nước đã được liên tục sửa đổi, bổ sung và hoàn thiện trong suốt một thập kỷ qua, nhưng rõ ràng vẫn chưa thực sự đi vào cuộc sống. Bài viết dưới đây đề cập chủ yến đến một số các thành tựu cũng như những vấn đề mâu thuẫn hiện tại của pháp luật bảo vệ nguồn tài nguyên nước ở Việt Nam

The Legal Framework of Vietnam’s Water Sector: Update 2013

In order to deal with problems related to both water quality and quantity as well as to strengthen the sustainable and integrative management of the nation’s water resources, the Vietnamese Government has adopted a wide spectrum of laws and regulations. In recent years, more than 300 water related regulations on the guidance and implementation of the Law on Water Resources have been issued and often amended to meet the requirements of the country’s development and its increasing international integration. In spite of this, the current legal framework for water resources management in Vietnam remains ineffective and does not correspond with the reality on the ground. Furthermore, law enforcement is deficient and often national regulations are ignored by local authorities, who priorities rapid growth of their communities over sustainability. Under these circumstances, the legal framework cannot properly guide sustainable use of water resources in order to achieve a degree of environmentally sustainable and, in particular, to protect the livelihoods of marginalized groups in society, such as landless fishermen, small-holders or poor people in periurban areas. Despite the gaps in this legal framework, water-related policies and programs in Vietnam consistently refer back to it while, at the same time, policy advisors typically call for reform. Understanding the legal framework is therefore important for both researchers and practitioners. In this view, a previous study was carried out by the author, entitled ‘Legal Framework of the Water Sector in Vietnam’ (Nguyen 2010), which aimed at presenting the key dimensions and the structure of that framework. Both the Vietnamese and the English version of the book were widely disseminated. This update became necessary because the government of Vietnam recently issued a new law on water resources as well as supplementary legislation. So far, no official English version of any of these new documents exists. Therefore, a detailed presentation of the contents of the laws is particularly timely. In addition to presenting the laws, this paper aims at shedding light on some of the critical aspects of the current legislation and illustrates how the law making process proceeded

Legal Framework of the Water Sector in Vietnam

Since 1986 and especially during the early 90s, environmental protection has become a constitutional principle in Vietnam as regulated by Articles 17 and 29 of the 1992 Constitution. The first Law on Environmental Protection, passed by the National Assembly on December 27, 1993 created a foundation for environmental legislation becoming an important field in Vietnam’s legal system. In the following, in January 1999, Vietnam enacted its very first Law on Water Resources (No. 08/1998/QH10) aiming to provide a foundational framework for managing the water sector in Vietnam. In recent years, the legislative framework on water resources management has further developed. Important water-related Government decrees, decisions and circulars on the guidance and implementation of the Law on Water Resources have been issued and often amended to meet the requirements of the country’s development, and its international integration. To date, Vietnam’s legislation on the water sector consists of a complex system of legal documents issued by different state agencies. Like in other legal fields, the groundwork of the legislation for the water sector is many-faceted. Though legislation of water sector management in Vietnam has greatly improved during the last decade, it has obviously not yet come to full fruition. Hence, this paper intends to analyze contradictions, gaps and overlaps of the current Law on Water Resources with other related laws/ordinances and secondary regulations that have bared themselves in the implementation process. Furthermore, the main aim of the study is to clarify and determine the need for a new comprehensive Law on Water Resources

Legal Framework of the Water Sector in Vietnam

Since 1986 and especially during the early 90s, environmental protection has become a constitutional principle in Vietnam as regulated by Articles 17 and 29 of the 1992 Constitution. The first Law on Environmental Protection, passed by the National Assembly on December 27, 1993 created a foundation for environmental legislation becoming an important field in Vietnam’s legal system. In the following, in January 1999, Vietnam enacted its very first Law on Water Resources (No. 08/1998/QH10) aiming to provide a foundational framework for managing the water sector in Vietnam. In recent years, the legislative framework on water resources management has further developed. Important water-related Government decrees, decisions and circulars on the guidance and implementation of the Law on Water Resources have been issued and often amended to meet the requirements of the country’s development, and its international integration. To date, Vietnam’s legislation on the water sector consists of a complex system of legal documents issued by different state agencies. Like in other legal fields, the groundwork of the legislation for the water sector is many-faceted. Though legislation of water sector management in Vietnam has greatly improved during the last decade, it has obviously not yet come to full fruition. Hence, this paper intends to analyze contradictions, gaps and overlaps of the current Law on Water Resources with other related laws/ordinances and secondary regulations that have bared themselves in the implementation process. Furthermore, the main aim of the study is to clarify and determine the need for a new comprehensive Law on Water Resources

Y2O3:Ho3+ and ZnO:Bi3+: a selection for enhancing color quality and luminous flux of WLEDs

As the luminescence industry develops, the white light light-emitting diode (LED) package with a single chip and a single phosphor although produces good luminous flux but has a poor color rendering index (CRI) can no longer fulfill the requirements of modern lighting applications. Therefore, this research is conducted to response to the urgent demands of improving other lighting qualities of WLED while maintaining high luminous efficiency. To achieve this target, we applied the new WLED package, which contains multi-chips and multi-phosphor layers, and have obtained outstanding results in both CRI and luminous efficacy. Two types of phosphor used in the WLED package are Y2O3:Ho3+ and ZnO:Bi3+. A color configuration model is also developed to adjust the shading of the white-light LED module. The results of this research show that the triple-layer phosphorhas the best performance when applied in a white-light LED package, which is demonstrated through better color quality, CRI and luminous efficacy, The manufacturers can rely on this research to produce the optimal-quality WLED, or WLED that is appropriate to their quality demands

Improving color quality and luminous flux of white LED utilizing triple-layer remote phosphor structure

In this manuscript, we presented a research that enhance the performance of WLED using the multi-phosphor configuration. The phosphor layers in the research are separated from each other to achieved better luminous efficiency, however, it makes controlling color light quality more complex. Another issue is finding out the whether two layers of phosphor or three layers of phosphor is better in improving color quality. The research addressed this issue by analyzing the optical aspects of the respective WLEDs that employ these structure. The studied aspects are quality indicators such as luminous efficacy (LE), and color uniformity, color rendering index (CRI), color quality scale (CQS). The results of the experiments in this research, which come from the employment of WLEDs with 2 color temperatures 5600 K and 8500, suggest that WLED with three phosphor layers is better in CRI, CQS, LE. This type of phosphor structure also limits the color deviation significantly, thus, improves the color uniformity. This results is verifies with Mie theory, therefore, can be applied as reference or guideline for production of better WLED

The effectiveness of MgCeAl11O19:Tb3+ phosphor in enhancing the luminous efficacy and color quality of multi-chip white LEDs

In this research paper, we introduced yellow-green MgCeAl11O19:Tb3+ asa new phosphor ingredient to adapt to the quality requirements onthe chromatic homogeneity and emitted luminous flux of modern multi-chip white LED lights (MCW-LEDs). The results from experiments and simulation show that employing MgCeAl11O19:Tb3+ phosphor can lead to much better optical properties and therefore is a perfect supporting material to achieve the goals of the research. When the MgCeAl11O19:Tb3+ phosphor is added into the phosphorus composite which already contains YAG: Ce3+ particles, and the silicone glue, it affects the optical properties significantly. In other words, the concentration of this phosphor can determine the efficiency of lumen output and chromatic homogeneity of WLEDs. In specific, as the concentration of MgCeAl11O19:Tb3+ go up, the luminous yield will increase accordingly, though there is an insignificant decrease in CQS. Moreover, if the MgCeAl11O19:Tb3+ concentration reduce a little bit, it is possible to better the correlated color temperature uniformity and lumen efficacy of LED packages. In addition, the Mie scattering theory, Monte Carlo simulation and LightTools 8.3.2 software are employed to analyze and simulate the LED packages’ structure as well as the phosphor compound