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Many waste collection and transportation vehicles in HCMC are simply built, easily polluting the environment |
So far, HCMC has launched various projects to renovate its canals of Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe, Tan Hoa – Lo Gom, Tham Luong – Ben Cat – Nuoc Len, Xuyen Tam, Hy Vong for the sake of environmental improvement. These efforts have brought fruitful results, offering better living standards to local dwellers.
Le Van Son, living on Nguyen Van Qua Street of District 12, happily shared that he felt really hopeful with the renovation project for Tham Luong – Ben Cat – Nuoc Len canal system as local residents will stop bearing environmental pollution when it completes.
Another notable work is the task of eliminating pollution hot spots due to illegal waste disposal near residential areas. Many of such hot spots have become green parks to serve the public.
Nguyen Thi Hoa, living near Hiep An Bridge in Ward 5 of District 8, joyfully stated that the public park in front of her house is an amazing transformation from the used-to-be squalid waste land owing to indiscriminate littering.
Nguyen Thi Lan from District 4 praised several activities by the municipal authorities to raise the public’s awareness on the matter of environmental protection via media means, including the annual ‘Green Living Festival’ to exchange solid waste for new plants. She commented that such activities are a valuable chance to teach young generations how to care for the environment, and hoped that more meaningful programs like that can be held throughout the city to gradually change both the awareness and habits of city dwellers for a greener city in the future.
The above results display the great determination of not only the municipal authorities but also each city dweller in protecting their environment. Statistics from the HCMC Department of Natural Resources and Environment reveal that in HCMC, 4,213 out of 4,335 production facilities own a proper sewage processing system (accounting for 97 percent). All solid medical waste is carefully collected, categorized, transported, and handled by capable units. All hospitals in the city have their own sewage processing system, leading to a treated sewage proportion of 97.89 percent.
In addition, HCMC now has 1,920 environmentally friendly constructions, while 198 polluted locations have been transformed into greener ones like parks or playgrounds. All households in the city have access to clean water. The percentage of forest and scattered tree coverage of the city maintains at 40.3 percent.
Deputy Director Huynh Van Thanh of the HCMC Department of Natural Resources and Environment stated that there are still limits in the task of environment protection that needs addressing including indiscriminating littering on certain streets and public areas, high potential of re-pollution in some canals.
Therefore, the city is going to adopt more practical measures to fulfill this critical task. It will try to complete legal policies and regulations on the matter, ask for help from central agencies to gather private solid waste collectors into cooperatives. It has also proposed that the Ministry of Industry and Trade quickly include projects of waste incineration for power in the city into the national planning on the development of power sources using solid waste so that investors can complete necessary legal procedures and carry out the construction.
Vice Chairman of HCMC People’s Committee Bui Xuan Cuong said that HCMC has always focused on turning the city into a more environmentally friendly one. That is the reason for the birth of the scheme ‘Reducing Environmental Pollution in the 2020-2030 Period’ and Directive No.19 by the Standing Committee of HCMC Party’s Committee about ‘Stopping Illegal Waste Disposal on Streets and Canals for a Cleaner City and Reduction in Urban Flooding’.
Accordingly, all state agencies and organizations in HCMC have simultaneously launched various suitable activities in each locality like weekly cleaning, green work construction to offer better places for residents to live.
Vice Chairman Cuong called upon the cooperation of civil servants, public employees, laborers, state agencies in HCMC to be more active in protecting the environment, responding to the fight against plastic pollution, devising feasible solutions to apply in daily activities or operations to improve the sanitation status.
