Decision No. 09/2020/QD-TTg Regulation on waste incident response

DECISION

Promulgating the Regulation on waste incident response

Pursuant to the Law on Governmental organization dated June 19, 2015;

Pursuant to the Law on Environmental protection, dated June 23, 2014;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 30/2017/ND-CP dated March 21, 2017 promulgating the organization of activities in response to incidents, natural disasters and rescue;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 19/2015/ND-CP dated February 14, 2015 detailing the implementation of a number of articles in the Law on Environmental protection;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 38/2015/ND-CP dated April 24, 2015 promulgating the management of wastes and discarded materials;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No. 40/2019/ND-CP dated May 13, 2019 amending and supplementing a number of articles of the decrees which provide details and guidance on the implementation of the Law on Environmental protection;

At the request of the Minister of Natural resources and Environment;

The Prime Minister hereby issues the Decision promulgating the Regulation on waste incident response.

Article 1.Issue together with this Decision the Regulation on waste incident response.

Article 2.The Decision shall take effect from May 01, 2020.

Article 3.The Chairperson of the National Committee on Incidents, Natural disaster response and Search and rescue, Ministers, Heads of Ministerial-level agencies, Heads of Governmental agencies, Municipal and Provincial People s Committees, and relevant organizations and individuals shall be responsible for implementing this Decision./.

For the Prime Minister

The Deputy Prime Minister

Trinh Dinh Dzung

REGULATION

On waste incident response

(Issued together with the Decision No. 09/2020/QD-TTg dated Match 18, 2020 of the Prime Minister)

CHAPTER I

GENERAL PROVISIONS

Article 1. Scope of regulation

1. This Regulation shall prescribe the response to waste incidents (sewage, emission, and solid waste), including the preparation for incident response; the organization of incident response; the environmental remediation and restoration post-incident; financial regimes and the public participation in responding to incidents and the responsibilities of relevant agencies, organizations and individuals.

2. This Regulation shall not prescribe the response to waste incidents caused by natural disasters and waste incidents taking place at sea. The response to waste incidents caused by natural disasters shall comply with legal regulations on natural disaster prevention and control. The response to waste incidents taking place at sea shall comply with legal regulations on responding to toxic chemical incidents, responding to oil spill incidents and other relevant regulations of the law.

Article 2. Subjects of application

This Regulation shall apply to State management agencies, industrial and manufacturing zones, high-tech zones, industrial complexes, manufacturing, business and service establishments, waste treatment establishments (hereinafter referred to as establishments) and relevant organizations and individuals involved in activities in response in waste incidents.

Article 3. Waste incidents and principles for responding to waste incidents

1. Waste incidents mean environmental incidents caused by wastes during the process of waste management.

2. The principle for responding to waste management

a) Actively preventing, developing plans and preparing resources and concerted plans on standby to respond to any waste incidents;

b) Organizing the timely receipt and handling with information on waste incidents, giving priority to ensure the flow of information for response activities and timely reporting to competent authorities if beyond their response capacity;

c) Responding to waste incidents in compliance with the motto “ four on the premise” and “three on standby” as specified in the law on natural disaster prevention and control; coordinating and mobilization all possible resources to enhance the efficiency of activities in preparation for and in response to waste incidents.

d) Providing consistent directions, closely coordinating and cooperating among forces, means, equipment involved in activities to respond to waste incidents;

dd) Organizations and individuals causing waste incidents shall be responsible for paying costs of organizing waste incident response, and environmental remediation and restoration after the incident, compensation for damages, and other expenses caused by the incident as prescribed by the law.

Article 4. Classification of waste incidents

1. Low-level waste incidents mean

a) Incidents taking place in one establishment s premise and within the establishment s capacity to respond to;

b) Incidents that are not specified at Point a of this Clause and which have their sphere of influence within the administrative boundary of a district, urban district, a city under a province (hereinafter referred to as district).

2. Medium-level incidents mean incidents that do not fall into cases as specified in Clause 1 of this Article and which have their sphere of influence within the administrative boundary of a province or a municipality (hereinafter referred to as province).

3. High-level incidents mean incidents which are not specified in Clause 1 and Clause 2 of this Article and which have their sphere of influence within the administrative boundary of more than two provinces.

4. Disaster-level incidents mean exceptionally serious incidents that severely influence the national defense, security and diplomacy. Any response to such level of incidents must comply with legal regulations on emergency cases.

CHAPTER II

PREPARATIONS IN RESPONSE TO  WASTE INCIDENTS

Article 5. Developing plans and organizing drills for waste incident response

1. Responsibilities for developing waste incident response

a) Establishments subject to setting up a dossier in the request for inspection and certification of completion of environmental protection facilities as specified in Appendix II to the Government’s Decree No. 40/2019/ND-CP dated May 13, 2019 on amending and supplementing a number of articles of decrees detailing and providing guidance on the implementation of the Law on Environmental protection – must develop a plan on responding to waste incidents and submit to their district-level People’s committee and district-level Committee for Natural disaster prevention and control and Search and rescue. The plan on responding to waste incidents can be integrated into the plan for responding to other incidents.

b) Provincial and district-level People s Committees shall organize the elaboration and ratification of annual and quinquennial plans on responding to waste incidents. Plans on responding to waste incidents as prescribed at this point can be integrated into or with civil defense plans or plans on responding to other local incidents.

c) The National Committee on Incident and Natural disaster response and Search and rescue shall take the prime role and coordinate with the Ministry of National defence, the Ministry of Natural resources and Environment, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Transports, and other relevant Ministries involved in organizing the elaboration of plans on responding to waste incident as prescribed in Clause 3 and Clause 4, Article 4 of this Regulation.

2. Plans on responding to waste incidents shall be established for the stage of preparation for incident response and the stage of organization of incident response. Such plans must detail a number of scenarios to respond to incidents with respective response solutions.

3. The General Department of Environment, Ministry of Natural resources and Environment shall provide detailed guidance on the contents of plans and scenarios to respond to waste incidents.

4. Any plans to respond to waste incidents must be publicized on the electronic portal of competent agencies and organizations and must be disclosed publicly.

5. Organizing waste incident response drills

a) Response drills to waste incidents specified at Point a, Clause 1, Article 4 of this Regulation shall be conducted at least every 2 years;

b) Response drills to waste incidents specified at Point a, Clause 1 of Article 4, Clause 2, Clause 3 and Clause 4 of Article 4 of this Regulation shall be conducted in accordance with the approved Plan on responding to waste incident.

c) Any waste incident response drills must involve the participation of relevant agencies, organizations, and forces, focal points of contact of a community, and surrounding establishments under potential influence of such incident;

d) Agencies and establishments in charge of developing and approving Plans on responding to waste incident must be responsible for organizing waste incident response drills prescribed at Point a, Point b and Point c of this Clause.

Article 6. Developing forces, resources and equipment in response to waste incidents

1. The Ministry of National defence shall take the prime role and coordinate with the Ministry of Natural resources and Environment, ministries and ministerial-level agencies, governmental agencies, provincial People s Committees to provide guidance to develop forces, mobilize resources and equipment to respond to waste incidents for the National Committee on Incident and Natural disaster response and Search and rescue, and provincial and district-level Committees on Natural disaster prevention and control and Search and rescue.

2.  Funding for developing forces, resources and equipment to respond to waste incidents shall be allocated from environmental non-business fundings and other sources as prescribed by the law.

Article 7. Organizing the implementation of Plans on responding to waste incidents

1. The National Committee on Incident and Natural disaster response and Search and rescue shall direct the implementation of plans on waste incident response specified in Clause 3 and Clause 4 of this Regulation; and shall inspect the implementation of plans on waste incident response specified in Clause 2, Article 4 of this Regulation.

2. Provincial Steering Committees for Natural disaster prevention and control, and Search and rescue shall direct the implementation of plans on waste incident response specified in Clause 2, Article 4 of this Regulation; and shall inspect the implementation of plans on waste incident response specified at Point b, Clause 1, Article 4 of this Regulation.

3. District-level steering Committees for Natural disaster prevention and control, and Search and rescue shall direct the implementation of plans on waste incident response specified at Point b, Clause 1, Article 4 of this Regulation; and shall inspect the implementation of plans on waste incident response specified at Point a, Clause 1, Article 4 of this Regulation.

4. Establishments shall organize the implementation of their plans on waste incident response.

CHAPTER III

ORGANIZING RESPONSE TO WASTE INCIDENTS

Article 8. Receipt and handling of information on waste incidents

1. Information on waste incidents must be promptly reported to telephone number 112, or to provincial, district-level or commune-level People s Committee where such incidents take place. Any organizations and individuals detecting a waste incident must immediately report to competent agencies specified in this Clause.

2. Any establishments with waste incidents must immediately report to the one of the following competent agencies:

a) Provincial, district-level or commune-level People’s Committee where  such incident take place;

b) District-level Steering Committees for Natural disaster prevention and control, and Search and rescue;

3. Provincial, district-level and commune-level People s Committees specified in Clause 1 and Clause 2 of this Article shall be responsible for promptly providing information to the standing body of Steering Committees for Natural disaster prevention and control, and Search and rescue at the same level or the higher level for examination and handlings.

Article 9. Response to waste incidents at establishments

1. The legal representative of an establishment or the authorized person shall be the one in charge of incident response at the establishment.

2. The person in charge of responding to waste incident at the establishment must organize incident response, assess the incident’s sphere of influence and the establishment’s self-handling capacity to carry out the following actions:

a) In case where a waste incident is within the establishment’s self-handling capacity, the person in charge of responding to waste incident must conduct measures in response to such incident in accordance with its approved plan and scenario; and must, meanwhile,  inform the District-level steering Committee for Natural disaster prevention and control, and Search and rescue and the commune-level People’s Committee - of its response to such incident within 24 hours after the incident is detected;

b) In case where a waste incident is beyond the establishment s self-handling capacity, the person in charge of responding to waste incident must immediately report to the district-level and commune-level People s Committee, or the District-level Steering Committee for Natural disaster prevention and control, and Search and rescue for help in response to such incident; relinquish the competence to command incident response to the District-level Steering Committee for Natural disaster prevention and control, and Search and rescue, and direct the establishment s incident response force at the request of the District-level Steering Committee for Natural disaster prevention and control, and Search and rescue.

3. Reporting and notifying a waste incident prescribed in Clause 1 and Clause 2 of this Article, including the following contents: date, venue, cause of waste incident; level and sphere of influence, damage caused by such incident; performed actions to respond to the incident; assessment of the establishment’s response capacity and other relevant contents.

Article 10. Response to waste incidents outside the establishment s premise

1. Identifying and announcing a waste incident

a) Within 24 hours after receiving the report as prescribed at Point b, Clause 2, Article 8 of this Regulation, the Head of the District-level Steering Committee for Natural disaster prevention and control, and Search and rescue shall identify and classify such incident in accordance with regulations in Article 4 of this Regulation, decide to publicly announce the waste incident and direct the response to such incident under this Regulation; in case where such incident is beyond their competence, the District-level Steering Committee for Natural disaster prevention and control, and Search and rescue must immediately report to the provincial-level Steering Committee for Natural disaster prevention and control, and Search and rescue for providing directions on responding to such incident.

Within 12 hours after receiving the report of the Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Search and rescue at district level, the Head of Steering Committee for Natural disaster prevention and control and Search and rescue at the provincial level shall decide to announce such waste incident and direct incident response in accordance with this Regulation; in case where such incident is beyond his/her competence, he/she must immediately report to the National Committee for Incident and Natural disaster response for directing incident response.

Within 12 hours after receiving the report of the provincial Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Search and rescue, the Chairperson of National Committee for Incident and Natural disaster response shall decide to announce such waste incident and direct incident response in accordance with this Regulation; in case where such incident is beyond his/her competence, it shall be reported to the Prime Minister for directing incident response.

The Prime Minister shall decide to publicly announce the emergency state and direct incident response under legal regulations on state of emergency.

b) The Decision to publicly announce a waste incident must include the following information: classification and level of such incident, date, venue sphere of influence, and relevant recommendations; establishment of a field commanding post to organize incident response; appoint an incident response commander,  and an incident spokesman (specify their full name, position, contact information) and any forces involved in incident response.

2. The person in charge of directing incident response and the person in charge of commanding incident response

a) Chairperson of the district-level People’s Committee, Head of Steering Committee for Natural disaster prevention and control and Search and rescue at the district level shall be in charge of directing incident response  and appointing an incident response commander for incidents specified at Point b, Clause 1, Article 4 of this Regulation;

b)  Chairperson of the provincial-level People’s Committee, Head of Steering Committee for Natural disaster prevention and control and Search and rescue at the provincial level shall be in charge of directing incident response  and appointing an incident response commander for incidents specified in Clause 2, Article 4 of this Regulation;

c) The Deputy Prime Minister, and Head of the National Committee for Incident and Natural disaster response, Search and rescue shall be in charge of directing incident response  and appointing an incident response commander for incidents specified in Clause 3, Article 4 of this Regulation;

d) The Prime Minister shall be in charge of directing incident response and appointing an incident response commander for incidents specified in Clause 4, Article 4 of this Regulation.

3. Tasks and powers of a person in charge directing incident response

a) Establishing a commanding post, appointing an incident response commander, a spokesman, and forces in response to such incident; establishing a working group to identify reasons causing such incident if necessary.

b) Mobilizing and allocating funding, vehicles and forces and mobilizing incident response forces for the person in charge of commanding incident response and the working group responsible for identifying the incident cause; directing relevant agencies, organizations, units, and individuals to participate in and coordinate to respond to such incident;

c) Directly providing directions to respond to the incident; report to and request the superior level to assist in incident response and environmental remediation and restoration where needed;

b) Other responsibilities and powers under legal regulations on natural disaster prevention and control, and other relevant legal regulations.

4. Tasks and powers of a person in charge commanding incident response

a) Timely organizing emergency measures to protect lives and properties of People, the State, relevant organizations and individuals,  minimizing damage and remedying consequences thereof;

b) Receiving and allocating funding, vehicles, and equipment, and directly providing directions for incident response forces; mobilizing forces and necessary equipment for waste incident response; reporting to the person in charge of directing incident response on a regular basis and providing information for the spokesman on incident response;

c) Consulting organizations, experts or request agencies, units, organizations and individuals to provide assistance in the process of incident response.

5. Advisory agencies for waste incident response

a) The Division of Natural resources and Environment shall take the prime role and coordinate with relevant organizations and units of the district-level People’s Committee to provide consultation on organizing incident response for incidents specified at Point b, Clause 1, Article 4 of this Regulation;

b) The Department of Natural resources and Environment shall take the prime role and coordinate with relevant agencies under the provincial People’s Committee to provide consultation on organizing incident response for incidents specified in Clause 2, Article 4 of this Regulation;

c) The Ministry of Natural resources and Environment shall take the prime role and coordinate with the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of National defence, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Information and Communication and other relevant agencies provide consultation on organizing incident response for incidents specified in Clause 3 and Clause 4, Article 4 of this Regulation;

d) Agencies as specified at Point a, Point b and Point c of this Clause shall be responsible for providing professional and technical assistance for the person in charge of directing incident response and a working group responsible for identifying the incident cause in accordance with their assigned functions, tasks and powers.

Article 11. Identifying causes of a waste incident

1. Chairpersons of People s Committees and Heads of the Steering Committee for Natural disaster prevention and control and Search and rescue be responsible for organizing incident response can decide to establish a working group to identify causes of a waste incident immediately after such incident takes place.

2. The working group shall include: representatives from an agency in charge of natural resources and environment, industry and trade, environmental police and other relevant organizations and individuals.

3. The working group shall be in charge of collecting information and documents, identify causes and root causes of such incidents, and promptly report to the person in charge of directing the incident response and the person in charge of commanding the incident response. The working group is allowed to mobilized vehicles and equipment, testing laboratories and experts to identify causes of a waste incident.

Article 12. Providing information on waste incident response

1. The spokesman appointed in the Decision on public announcement of waste incidents as prescribed at Point b, Clause 1, Article 10 of this Regulation is the official spokesman for such waste incident and waste incident response.

2. Responsibilities and powers of the spokesman

a) Providing timely, complete, genuine and accurate information on a waste incident and waste incident response to the community, relevant organizations and individuals and communication agencies;

b) Receiving or requesting information on waste incident, and waste incident response from the person in charge of directing the incident response and the person in charge of commanding the incident response, advisory agencies, the working group responsible for identifying the incident causes,  and other relevant organizations and individuals.

3. Forms of providing information:

a) Through focal point of contact of relevant agencies, organizations and individuals in accordance with to the plan on waste incident response and incident response scenarios or information disclosure on the electronic portal of People s Committees at all levels;

b) Organizing press conferences to provide information or through central and local media agencies to provide information on an incident and incident response;

c) Other communication channels which fit the characteristics, situation and conditions of the region and the locality where the incident takes place.

4. Communities, concerned organizations and individuals have the right to request information on a waste incident and waste incident response; media agencies have the right to access to information on waste incidents and are responsible for conveying accurate, genuine and timely information to people.

5. Information on the response to waste as specified in this Article shall be decided by the person in charge of commanding waste incident response and shall be provided within 48 hours from the time of announcement of a waste incident.

Article 13. Completing the stage of organizing waste incident response

1. The stage of organizing incident response shall come to an end when the causes and sources of waste causing waste incidents are isolated, controlled and safely handled and there are no longer any risks of causing subsequent incidents.

2. The person in charge of directing waste incident response shall decide to announce the end of the stage of organizing incident response when all the conditions prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article are fully satisfied. The decision to announce the end of the stage of organizing incident response must be made public by one of the forms of providing information as specified in Clause 3, Article 12 of this Regulation.

CHAPTER IV

ENVIRONMENTAL REMEDIATION AND RESTORATION AFTER A WASTE INCIDENT

Article 14. Responsibilities and requirements in environmental remediation and restoration

1. Organizations and individuals that cause waste incidents must be held responsible for environmental remediation and restoration or must pay funding for environmental remediation and restoration at the request of competent state agencies.

2. Responsibilities for environmental remediation and restoration after a waste incident

a) For incidents specified at Point a, Clause 1, Article 4 of this Regulation that are caused directly by establishments, such responsibilities shall be borne by these establishments themselves;

b) For incidents specified at Point b, Clause 1, Clause 2, Clause 3 and Clause 4 of Article 4 of this Regulation, agencies approving plans on environmental remediation and restoration as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 15 of this Regulation shall bear such responsibilities;

3. The environmental remediation and restoration after a waste incident must ensure the satisfaction of technical regulations on the quality of the surrounding environment; must restore residential, production and business premises, natural environment for areas without ecological systems to be preserved; and must restore a number of key characteristics of the ecosystem for areas where the ecosystem is conserved.

Article 15. Approval of environmental remediation and restoration plans

1. Within 30 days after the announcement of the end of the stage of organizing incident response as specified at Point b, Clause 1, Clause 2, Clause 3 and Clause 4, Article 4 of this Regulation, environmental remediation and restoration plans must be approved.

a) The Division of Natural resources and Environment shall submit to the district-level People s Committee for approval of environmental remediation and restoration plans for waste incidents prescribed at Point b, Clause 1, Article 4 of this Regulation;

b) The provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment shall submit to the provincial People s Committee for approval of environmental remediation and restoration plans for waste incidents prescribed in Clause 2, Article 4 of this Regulation;

c) The General Department of Environment shall submit to the Minister of Natural resources and Environment for approval of environmental remediation and restoration plans for waste incidents prescribed in Clauses 3 and Clause 4, Article 4 of this Regulation.

2. Main contents of environmental remediation and restoration plans

a) Description of environmental status after an incident, including: the extent, scope and nature of environmental pollution in each area; the current status of the environment, the ground, the ecosystem before such waste incident (if any); requirements for environmental treatment in accordance with the surrounding environmental quality standards, ground restoration, restoration of some key ecological characteristics;

b) Solutions for environmental remediation and restoration; analysis, evaluation to select the best solution for environmental remediation and restoration;

b) Portfolio and workload of sectionsof environmental remediation and restoration for the selected solution;

d) Implementation plans; implementation sub-plansaccording to each period of environmental remediation and restoration; programsof management, observation and supervision during environmental remediation and restoration; planson verificationof environmental remediation and restorationoutcomes;

d) Estimated budgetfor environmental remediation and restoration for each section of theenvironmental remediation and restorationplan.

Article 16.Organization of environmental remediation and restoration

1. The environmental remediation and restoration shall be conducted in the form of bidding, in accordance with the Law on Bidding. Agencies in charge of approving plans on environmental remediation and restoration shall organize bidding through professional bidding agencies.

2. The winning organization and unit shall carry out environmental remediation and restoration in strict compliance with the environmental remediation and restoration plan and ensure the satisfaction of requirements specified in Clause 3, Article 14 of this Regulation and other relevant legal regulations

3. Agencies approving environmental remediation and restoration plans shall conduct appraisal, supervision, inspection and verification of the completion of environmental remediation and restoration in accordance with the approved plans. Organizations and individuals causing such incidents are allowed to participate in the supervision, evaluation, examination and verification of the completion of environmental remediation and restoration.

Article 17. Completion of environmental remediation and restoration

1. The environmental remediation and restoration stage shall end when competent agencies decide to verify the outcomes of the environmental remediation and restoration process.

2. The Decision on the verification of environmental remediation and restoration outcomes and the outcomes of environmental remediation and restoration must be officially publicized on the mass media.

3. After announcing the completion of the environmental remediation and restoration process, the agency approving such environmental remediation and restoration plan shall directly report the outcomes to the superior authority.

CHAPTER V

FINANCIAL REGIMES AND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN WASTE INCIDENT RESPONSE

Article 18. Funding for waste incident response

1. Organizations and individuals that cause incidents shall be responsible for paying timely and fully all expenses related to the organization of waste incident response and environmental remediation and restoration. In case the organizations and individuals causing such incidents cannot be identified, the funding for incident response and environmental remediation and restoration shall be borne by the State.

2. The organization of waste incident response and the environmental remediation and restoration specified at Point b, Clause 1, Clauses 2, Clause 3 and Clause 4, Article 4 of this Regulation shall be funded by the State from the contingency fund, environmental non-business sources and other sources as prescribed by the law. Organizations and individuals that cause incidents are responsible for reimbursing all expenses related to the organization of waste incident response and the environmental remediation and restoration to the State.

3. The advisory agency for waste incident response shall, within its competence, coordinate with the judiciary agencies to request organizations and individuals causing waste incidents to reimburse the State budget for the expenses that the State has already paid to organize waste incident response and remediate and restore the environment.

4. The Ministry of Finance shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Natural resources and Environment in, formulating norms and procedures for the payment of waste incident response and environmental remediation and restoration after waste incidents.

5. Agencies, organizations, individuals and communities affected, or damaged by waste incidents have the right to request organizations and individuals causing waste incidents to compensate under legal regulations.

Article 19. Public participation in waste incident response

1. Establishments shall be responsible for publicly announcing information to relevant communities, organizations and individuals on the volume, and the nature of wastes generated in the production, business and service process; at the same time, publicizing their plans on waste incident response and scenarios on the waste incident response by posting such plans and scenarios at their establishments and the commune People s Committees and by any other convenient means.

2. Communities potentially affected by waste incidents must be notified of the incident risks and measures to respond to waste incidents caused by establishments; must be aware of and must have the right to supervise activities on waste incident response and environmental remediation and restoration - conducted by establishments or State agencies.

3. Representatives of the potentially affected communities and households must participate in drills of waste incident response organized by establishments and State agencies. Representatives of such communities shall be responsible for providing information to their communities and acting as a focal point of contact throughout the process of preparation and implementation of waste incident response, and the process of environmental remediation and restoration after such incidents. If necessary, representatives of such communities may have the right to request relevant establishments, agencies and units to provide and explain information on waste incidents, waste incident response and environmental remediation and restoration to them.

Article 20. Encouraging theparticipation in waste incident response activities

1. The State encourages and creates favorableconditions for organizations and individuals to invest in and participate in the provision of waste incident response services, including: preparation for waste incident response and organization ofincident response and environmental remediation and restoration after waste incidents.

2. The participation and contribution of efforts and funding, from organizations and individuals, to waste incident response activities as prescribed in this Regulation are encouraged.

CHAPTER VI

IMPLEMENTATION RESPONSIBILITIES

Article 21. Responsibilities of the National Committee on Incidents, Natural disaster response and Search and rescue as well as provincial and district-level Committees for Natural disaster prevention and control, and Search and rescue

1.  Providing directions on the elaboration, implementation and inspection of the implementation of waste incident response plans; inspecting and urging the preparation and readiness for incident response; organizing training and drills of waste incident response.

2. Providing directions and directly organizing waste incident response in accordance with this Regulation.

Article 22. Responsibilities of ministries, ministerial-level agencies and governmental agencies

1. The Ministry of Natural resources and Environment

a) Assisting the Government in unifying state management of waste incident response; organizing inspection and assessment of risks of waste incidents nationwide; directing the General Department of Environment to provide detailed guidance on the contents of plans and scenarios for waste incident response and environmental remediation and restoration after incidents;

b) Taking the prime responsibility and coordinating with relevant ministries and agencies in advising the organization of incident response, environmental remediation and restoration after incidents - for high-level and catastrophic waste incidents;

c) Taking the prime responsibility and coordinating with relevant ministries, ministerial-level agencies, Governmental agencies and provincial People s Committees to organize communication activities on waste incident response; developing the national database of waste incidents.

2. The Ministry of National Defense

a) Taking the prime responsibility for building forces, allocating resources and equipment to respond to waste incidents for the National Committee on Incidents, Natural disaster response and Search and rescue; as well as provincial and district-level Committees for Natural disaster prevention and control, and Search and rescue; and other relevant units to readily respond to waste incidents.

b)Taking the prime responsibility and coordinating with relevant ministries, ministerial-level agencies, Governmental agencies to build and enhance technical capacity, to organize research, and to manufacture equipment for waste incident response.

3. The Ministry of Public Security shall direct the Environmental Police, the Police for fire prevention and fighting, and search and rescue, the investigating agencies at all levels, the Public security force at units and localities to be on standby to participate in waste incident response at the request of competent agencies and authorities.

4. The Ministry of Finance shall provide guidance, allocate funding and issue norms for waste incident response activities, including activities in preparation and organization of incident response, and activities in environmental remediation and restoration after such incidents.

5. The Ministry of Justice shall provide guidance on the legal procedures to request organizations and individuals causing waste incidents to reimburse expenses for organizing waste incident response, environmental remediation and restoration, and compensation for damage in accordance with the law.

6. The Ministry of Health shall provide direction to build the capacity of medical establishments in waste incident response, ensure health and human safety in handling waste incidents.

7. Ministries, ministerial-level agencies and other governmental agencies shall participate in waste incident response in accordance with their assigned functions and tasks and at the request of competent agencies or authorities.

Article 23. Responsibilities of localities

1. People s Committees at all levels

a) Conducting propagation, raising public awareness, disseminating knowledge about the prevention and response to waste incidents in localities; providing directions to local units to implement, organize drills and implement waste incident response plans;

b) Developing a waste incident response force, ensuring human resources, facilities and equipment to respond to incidents and to readily participate in local waste incident response;

c) Providing directions, organizing and mobilizing relevant forces to respond to waste incidents in the locality.

2. The Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the Division of Natural resources and Environment

a) Advising the People s Committee of the same level in state management of waste incident response in their locality; organizing inspection and assessment of the risk caused by waste incidents in their locality;

b) Advising the People s Committee and the Steering Committee for Natural disaster prevention and control, and Search and rescue at the same level to organize the waste incident response, and environmental remediation and restoration after waste incidents in their locality.

Article 24. Responsibilities of establishments

1. Implementing measures to prevent waste incidents; developing and implementing waste incident response plans; organizing waste incident response at their establishments and participating in waste incident response at the command of competent agencies and persons.

2. Regularly organizing waste incident response drills and investing in equipment to ensure the readiness to respond to waste incidents./.

For the Prime Minister

The Deputy Minister

Trinh Dinh Dzung