A workshop was held in the Mekong deltaprovince of An Giang on May 27 for the provincial authorities andSwedish diplomats and experts to discuss environment and energycooperation.

The “An Giang-Sweden Partner Cooperation on Environment, RenewableEnergy and Climate Change” workshop was jointly organised by the Embassyof Sweden in Hanoi and the People’s Committee of An Giang and theVietnam Academy of Science and Technology.

At the workshop, Swedish experts in the areas of renewable energy andwaste water treatment presented their green solutions and technologies.

The event was held as An Giang province, a strong area for riceproduction and seafood processing, is meeting with emergingenvironmental issues, including treatment of wastewater from fisheryprocessing factories and of rice husks.

With an annual rice output of between 3.4 and 3.5 million tonnes whichproduce an estimated 640,000 tonnes of rice husk, An Giang is urgentlyin need of new technologies to turn rice husk and other agriculturalwastes into energy to feed around 1,695 brick kilns that are currentlyrun on biomass fuel.

The province has a total acreage for tra and basa fish farming of1,200-1,400 hectares and 17 fish processing factories, each dischargesfrom 2,000 to 6,000 cu.m of wastewater everyday.

Participants to the workshop focused their discussions on the use ofbiogas technology for turning agricultural wastes into energy;aquaculture, treatment of industrial waste, cutting the use of fossilfuels, solutions and resources to help An Giang and other Mekong deltaprovinces response to climate change.

An Giang authorities voiced their interests in expanding cooperationwith local and foreign organisations on application of advancedsolutions and technologies as well as human resources training./.