“Air pollution knows no boundaries and affects us all,” she said, adding: “My family lived in China and India for many years, and we understand how air quality affects health, especially the health of children, whose lungs are still growing.”įILE - Traffic moves besides the Saigon river during rush hour in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Nov. consul general in Ho Chi Minh City Mary Tarnowka said, citing World Bank data. Scarier yet, 66,300 Vietnamese died from causes linked to bad air in 2013, U.S. Meanwhile, though, the frequency of days when Ho Chi Minh City’s air is considered unhealthy for sensitive groups has doubled compared to two years ago. Gross domestic product expands 6 to 7 percent every year. Postwar economic improvements have brought Vietnam a long way, but some are pausing now to reflect on the tradeoffs made in that time.
“In Vietnam the last 10 years, we developed very rapidly because of low energy prices,” said Phu, who works at Fulbright University Vietnam. The consulate’s air quality monitor has become a daily reference for residents ever since it was installed in 2015, along with a similar device at the embassy in Hanoi. And this statistic might give them a wake-up call: Vietnam now has the dubious distinction of joining the club of 10 countries with the worst air pollution in the world, according to the U.S. He is urging Vietnamese to take the long view and put up with the higher cost of clean energy, though it might be painful for their pocketbooks at first. And all that toxic air comes with a cost, whether in the money spent to upgrade to cleaner fuels, or in the health problems Vietnamese will suffer as a result.Įnvironmental economist Le Viet Phu says sooner or later there will be a price to pay. The air quality in Vietnam overall does not quite rival that in China or India when it comes to pollution.
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