LookAtVietnam – Every household in HCM City should be committed to direct participation in keeping the surrounding environment clean, city officials said yesterday, October 1.

Residents grow trees and clean the pavements in a resettlement zone in Tan Thoi Nhat ward in District 12.

The officials were speaking at a workshop held to discuss a draft environmental protection regulation for the city as well as a formal commitment that households would be required to sign for participating in activities implementing the regulation. The commitment includes a list of dos and don’ts that the households agree to abide by in order to make the city environment cleaner.

“Every resident needs to be aware and participate, or the city will not be able to fulfil the task of environment protection,” said Nguyen Van Phuoc, deputy director of the city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

Representatives of several departments and agencies in the city gave their comments on the two drafts with most of them saying the stipulation that requires each household to discharge garbage in regulated places and at specified times was impractical, because this would depend on the schedule of garbage collectors.

Vo Anh Tuan, a specialist from the HCM City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the majority of garbage collectors failed to collect rubbish at scheduled times, leading to the pile up of plastic bags containing garbage on the streets.

This caused environmental pollution and other health problems, especially when roads were flooded, Tuan said.

Local authorities had to define responsibilities of garbage collectors to prevent this, he said.

Nguyen Thi Hong, deputy head of District 10’s Environment and Resources Division, said the regulation relating to noise levels should include the specific times when individuals and organisations are prohibited from making noise that affects residents, for instance at noon and in the evening.

The regulation and commitment should also take into account the building of septic tanks in every household and the treatment of waste collected from it before it is discharged into culverts, said Nguyen Quang Trung, a member of the Popularisation and Education Unit of the HCM City Party Committee.

Trung also said that the local government should build more public toilets to deal with the existing shortage of such facilities in order to reduce urination on streets and pavements.

According to a survey conducted earlier this year by the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment, garbage was perceived as the most serious environment polluter in the community by experts, officials and residents.

Dust discharged by production activities, vehicle exhaust, and pollution in canals were also significant problems, the survey found.

Opinions gathered at the workshop would be used to adjust the drafts towards making them more practical and feasible, Phuoc said.

The workshop was organised by the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment and the Viet Nam Fatherland Front’s HCM City Chapter.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News