Waste collection and environmental sanitation activities at Cai Rang floating market area, Ninh Kieu district. (Photo: Hung Vo/Vietnam+)  

World Cleanup Day 2024 is on Friday September 20, 2024. In response, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Vietnam, in coordination with the Can Tho Department of Natural Resources and Environment, on September 18 launched a campaign to collect waste and clean the environment in Cai Rang Floating Market in Ninh Kieu district.

The event aims to raise public awareness and change people’s behaviours in waste disposal and recycling while strengthening cooperation between stakeholders to improve the efficiency of solid waste management in Can Tho.

According to the UNDP’s Sustainable Development Specialist Dzeneta Mulabegovic, every year, Vietnam discharges about 3 million tonnes of solid waste, about 2.5 percent of which leaks into waterways, while a portion of plastic waste floats into rivers and drifts near the coast and offshore.

Studies from 2021 showed that floating waste from rivers contributes the most to plastic pollution in the ocean, she said.

In Can Tho, about 650 tonnes of waste are released to the environment every day, she noted, stressing that despite the high rate of garbage collection at 85 percent, the city still faces difficulties in managing waste leakage on waterways, floating markets, rivers and lakes. This leakage adversely affects the living environment as well as the natural ecosystem.

A comprehensive package of solutions is needed at all levels to tackle this issue, especially those to change behaviours and waste disposal habits as well as effectively collect, sort and treat domestic solid waste, the UNDP representative said.

She added that one of the major solutions that Can Tho should prioritise is to deploy automated systems that efficiently collect waste in waterways and bring it ashore – where it can be processed by the city’s waste management system. This approach helps prevent garbage and plastic waste from floating in rivers before it reaches the sea, reducing ocean plastic pollution, she explained.

Standing Vice Chairman of the Can Tho People’s Committee Duong Tan Hien put forward solutions, including launching community campaigns to clean up the environment, plant trees and restore the environment in urban, residential and surrounding areas, especially on lakes, rivers and canals.

Right after the launch ceremony, delegates and local youngsters collected waste and cleaned up the environment at the Cai Rang Floating Market on the Can Tho River, and visited the Interceptor 003 system, an automatic waste collection vessel operated by the organisaton The Ocean Cleanup (TOC) on the river.

According to the UNDP in Vietnam, in the past three years, the automatic waste collection system has collected more than 200 tonnes of plastic waste on the river./.