Lookatvietnam – In order to create a higher quality of life in the urban environment, a long-term process is required to build up the consciousness of each resident and cultural level for each community, says Dr Truong Thi Hien, principal of the municipal Staff Training Institute.

Residents of Phuoc Son Commune discard trash in the canal, which is also their source of water.

Residents’ economic means have been increasing. Quality of life, however, has not been rising on an equal pace with the economic development.

This is especially true with the environment – both natural and social.

The water, land and air have become more polluted. And social evils like prostitution, drug addiction and criminality have adversely affected the quality of life.

Raising awareness

Recognising these problems, the city’s authorities have made efforts in education. Movements such as the “green summer campaign”, which draws thousands of volunteers to help rural and difficult areas, the “green - clean – beautiful” movement and “no-drug in resident communities” have gained initial results.

The programmes should be maintained for a very long time to raise the awareness of local residents, says Hien.

“Education is the best, quickest and most sustainable way to attain greater urban civility,” she confirms.

Hien suggests that everything should originate from the State offices because State officials will be the leaders for every project and programme.

“If we had 110,000 HCM City officials who live with a higher awareness about urban civility, I’m sure the movement will strongly develop,” Hien adds.

“These officials will be mirrors for residents to change their behaviours in daily life,” she says.

Last year, the municipal Justice Department trained nearly 3,000 staff in both professional and urban civility. This was considered the beginning of a change in all State offices.

Strict punishments

In 2008, the city increased punishments involving quality of life issues with over VND50 billion (US$2.8 million) for 260,000 cases.

Additionally, fines for traffic violations increased by 50 per cent. There were a total of 1.5 million violations last year. Thanks to strong punishment, the city had less accidents, injuries and fatalities.

“When the leaders issue a good programme, they also need to release the right methods,” Hien says.

This year, the city will speed up solutions to deal with environmental pollution, tighten traffic order, reduce social evils, promote administrative reform and encourage politeness in public behaviour.

“To achieve success, the city’s leaders should hear the opinions of local residents. The most important thing that residents can do is to understand, accept and participate,” she says.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News