With his positive and effective contributions to environmental protection, Mr. Ngo Van Minh, 33, from Hai Chau District, Da Nang, has been awarded a certificate of merit by the Da Nang People's Committee Chairman for the Da Nang Environmental Award in 2023.

Mr. Ngo Van Minh is always proactive and positive at work with the desire to contribute to the cause of environmental protection. Photo courtesy of Mr. Ngo Van Minh

Since October 2018, Minh has been working at the Department of Environmental Management, Science - Technology and Incubation at the Authority the Da Nang Hi-tech Park and Industrial Zones (DHPIZA).

His major task is to advise in key areas such as implementing environmental protection activities, proactively responding to climate change, meeting green growth goals in the Da Nang Hi-tech Park, the Da Nang Concentrated Information Technology Park and industrial parks (IPs) across the city, along with developing plans for environmental protection publicity, waste discharge monitoring and environmental monitoring.

In addition, Minh also participates in supervising the trial operation of waste treatment facilities for enterprises; developing plans and budget estimates for incubation - innovative startups.

In 2020, he was assigned to be the focal officer implementing activities of the project ‘Implementing eco-industrial park initiatives in Viet Nam following the approach from the global eco-industrial park programme’ chaired by the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment, in coordination with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

With a sense of responsibility in his work, Minh always proactively advises on guiding environmental protection activities and solutions to limit the impacts of the ongoing climate change in the process of actively responding to annual environmental protection movements.

As the focal officer of the National Eco-Industrial Park project, Minh has advised the unit to contribute constructive ideas to the draft document guiding the construction of eco-industrial parks and eco-enterprises, organised a workshop to review the pilot construction of ecological IP models in 5 IPs nationwide, including the Hoa Khanh IP in Da Nang, and review solutions to replicate the ecological IP model nationwide in the coming time.

In particular, in the 2022 - 2023 period, Minh actively participated in implementing innovative initiatives and solutions in environmental monitoring, including innovating methods of monitoring discharges, publishing data on pollution control in the Da Nang Hi-tech Park and local IPs, enhancing the effectiveness of pollution control through an environmental monitoring camera system, which has been recognised and expanded to local IPs by the DHPIZA.

According to Minh, currently, the construction of an environmental monitoring and warning system in IPs through environmental cameras is not really popular. Meanwhile, annual environmental monitoring costs a lot of money, leading to a small number of monitoring enterprises.

Therefore, applying innovative solutions to discharge monitoring methods and piloting environmental monitoring camera systems is expected to bring positive effects in limiting emissions from enterprises; promptly warning and limiting the occurrence of environmental incidents.

On the other hand, publicizing environmental monitoring results also helps communities near IPs have an objective view of the operations of enterprises, avoiding unfounded opinions that affect the investment and business environment.

Up to now, with the initiative of ‘innovating discharge monitoring methods, publishing data on pollution control’, since 2022, the DHPIZA has worked with enterprises to innovate monitoring methods.

As for the solution of ‘increasing the effectiveness of pollution control through the environmental monitoring camera system’, the pilot project is transmitting data from 12 cameras monitoring emission points and the transportation of raw materials from the Hoa Khanh IP to the headquarters for giving timely warnings to enterprises when signs of emissions exceeding standards are detected.

“With the positive results achieved in the implementation of the National Ecological IP Project at the Hoa Khanh IP, in 2024, I am participating in developing a project to convert the existing IPs across Da Nang into ecological ones. In addition, the DHPIZA will continue to expand the application of environmental monitoring camera system solutions in the remaining IPs in the city, focusing on enterprises with large emissions and regularly receiving feedback from neighbouring residential areas", Minh said.

“Receiving the certificate of merit from the Da Nang People's Committee Chairman, I feel very honoured and moved. This is a great source of encouragement after nearly 10 years of working in the field of environmental management at IPs. It will be a great source of motivation for me to make more efforts to do research and come up with new solutions and initiatives to contribute to the cause of environmental protection in the city the coming time”, he added. 

Reporting by TRAN TRUC - Translating by A.THU