The Vietnam Urban Association is choosing ten cities for the green and beautiful cities in Vietnam awards, to be presented on Urban Day, November 11.

The association’s secretary General Nguyen Lan said cities must satisfy the following criteria: initiatives to clean up the city, clean streets, 80 percent of discharged rubbish collected, 75 percent of the roads paved with concrete and at least 50 percent of businesses having waste water treatment facilities.

Vietnam currently has 752 cities and towns with urbanisation growing rapidly.

However, experts say many urban areas are growing quickly but not sustainably. Houses for workers and the less well off are in short supply and environmental pollution is worsening.

Lan said Urban Day will be a large scale event in Hanoi to call for community’s participation in urban planning and construction and to raise a sense of urban environmental protection.

VietNamNet/VNE