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| Sunday, 17 October 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Green Productivity ushers in prosperity In the morning of last Friday (24) Villagers of the Man De Village in the Nam Sach Commune of the Hai Duong Province, Vietnam were gathered at the community centre of the village. It was a bright morning with sun shining . The women wearing traditional corn shaped palmayrah leaf hats, elderly people, young boys and girls as well as small kids were among the crowd. Ladies served tea with some unpleasant taste in very small cups. Journalists representing 14 countries visited Man De Village and were sitting in the community centre to listen to a very successful story of their own in balancing the development and the environment by implementing Green Productivity concepts. Man De is a farming village extending over 224 hectares and of them 148 hectares are under cultivation of mainly paddy and other crops. Poultry industry is also a main part of the livelyhood of Man De villagers. Another 17 ha are low-lying land areas. There is a population of over 3000 in the village in 715 households. Of them 85% are engaged in cultivation and 10% are engaged in agricultural processing. Several years ago the people of Man De were suffering from the results of their own activities in an unbalanced development process. Inappropriate management of solid, human and animal waste which caused air and water pollution, spoiled the landscape of the village and undermined the health of the villagers. People suffered from diarrohea and trachoma. The village had no environment protection regulations. The gases produced from onion and garlic-processing activities affected the health of the people and 30% of the population had respiratory diseases. All the wells in the village were contaminated with aluminum and 90% of the ponds and lakes were polluted due to poor water drainage. Lack of drinking water was a main problem and 100% of the people used rainwater for drinking and polluted water for other uses. Lack of awareness of advanced technology for environmental protection was another problem. Chemical fertilizer and pesticide usage in Man De was 2-5 times greater than the permitted threshold of Vietnam resulting in environment pollution and reducing the effectiveness of the chemicals. Inadequate standard of (nearly 10 Km of path ways) rural traffic routes negatively impacted rural hygiene conditions. By 2002 the condition of the Man De was at a disastrous level and authorities had to do something to change the situation. Vietnam Productivity Center (VPC) intervened and implemented a Green Productivity (GP) project in the Man De engaging the villagers. The village level woman, youth and children organisations of the Vietnam Communist Party were actively engaged in the GP campaign. Since the problems were the results of the human activities immediate steps had to be taken to manage them and to make people aware of the benefits of the GP concept. GP training activities commenced and GP teams were set up. Training courses on GP methodologies were organized and over 50 participants including members of GP teams, environment officers and the manager of the community took part in those training activities. Training courses on new cultivation methods that supported environment protection were conducted and over thousand participants attended. A two-day integrated pest management (IPM) courses were conducted for GP teams and other technicians of the village. A six member team was set up to collect solid waste and treat. It was done twice a week. Numerous bins for pesticide container collection were constructed. A village environmental protection fund was established with contribution from households and other sources. A 3000m-drainage system and a 7000m concrete roadway were constructed in the village. Addressing environmental problems of unmanaged poultry industry in the village 180 pig breeding facilities were built. Two compartment latrines were provided for 65 households. To prevent the air pollution from agricultural products 200 advanced stoves were built which helped to improve the quality of the products as well. In addition this activity generated new jobs for the Man De villagers from processing of neighbouring villagers products and consequently income of the people increased. Bio-gas plants were constructed to treat animal waste and provide energy for households. Another important step taken under the project was the establishment of environment protection regulation by the villagers, which have been approved by the commune authorities. A campaign was launched to clean the entire village with the participation of thousands of villagers. Apart from this they have conducted a wide publicity campaign using all the media access by the Man De people. " Today even children of this village will tell you what Green Productivity is. All the people actively engage in the process and maintain everything what we have started" says the head of the environment department of the VPC. We did see the results of the efforts made by the VPC and Man De people. Today the whole village is a clean and pleasant place. The paddy harvesting was started and stacks of hay were laid along concrete pathways. They are piled up in gardens to use as animal foods and organic fertilizer. Biogas plants, piles of compost fertilizer, ponds and low-lying lands filled with clean water can be seen. All village wells are used to get drinking water. Fruits and vegetable are grown in every home garden. People said that they mostly used the compost fertilizer removed from biogas tanks for these cultivations. The special feature behind the success of Man De village is the people are continuing and updating the process. The money was only spent on construction of some essential infrastructures but the project succeeded mainly due to wide participation of the people and awareness. The VPC officials says that they are taking the experience of Man De to implement hundreds of new GP projects in Vietnam. The GP concepts was first introduces by the Asian Productivity Organisation responding appeal of Rio de Janeiro earth summit to reduce the environmental damages of the development. |
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