Since 2019, Da Nang has invested in many smart environmental monitoring and management projects, ensuring the quality of air, water and soil. In the 2025 - 2030 period, the city continues to invest more than VND102 billion to implement the project to improve environmental monitoring capacity to achieve the goals of the project ‘Building Da Nang into Environmentally-friendly City’ in the 2021 - 2030 period towards an ecological urban area.

The city invested in building an automatic and continuous water environment monitoring system on Vinh Dien River in Dien Ban town, Quang Nam Province. Photo: HOANG HIEP

Along with 2 automatic air environment monitoring stations at the headquarters of the University of Da Nang (UD) on Le Duan Street and the University of Science and Education under the UD installed and put into operation by the Vietnamese Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, in July 2019, the Da Nang People’s Committee approved the investment in the construction of 2 automatic, continuous water environment monitoring systems on the Vu Gia - Thu Bon river basin (Vu Gia River in Dai Loc District and Vinh Dien River in Dien Ban Town).

Then, in September 2019, the Da Nang People’s Committee approved the investment in the construction of 13 automatic environmental monitoring stations in Da Nang (4 coastal seawater environmental monitoring stations, 3 river water environmental monitoring stations and 6 ambient air environmental monitoring stations). Till date, 10 automatic environmental monitoring stations have been completed.

Implementing the environmental quality monitoring programme of Da Nang in the 2021 - 2025 period, in recent years, the Da Nang Department of Natural Resources and Environment has monitored and operated environmental monitoring stations such as the automatic surface water monitoring station located at the Cau Do water plant; automatic, continuous wastewater monitoring station at the Non Nuoc stone craft village..., and monitored online monitoring data from 30 automatic monitoring stations in the city according to the coordination regulations.

In addition, samples of river water, streams, coastal seawater, lake water, groundwater; soil samples, sediment (mud) and passive air are collected for analysis and monitoring of environmental quality. In addition, water environment monitoring campaigns are being deployed at Tho Quang fishing port, Man Quang Bay, Phu Loc river; air environment monitoring in the area adjacent to the Lien Chieu Industrial Park, residential areas adjacent to the Khanh Son landfill... to monitor and promptly respond to voters’ and people’s opinions on the environment.

Deputy Director of the Da Nang Department of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Quang Vinh said that the city has installed garbage truck tracking devices and camera systems on garbage trucks to monitor and supervise the quality of garbage collection activities; built a surveillance camera system and automatic identification in the the Tho Quang fishing port area to detect and manage boats entering and leaving the dock as well as promptly detect and handle illegal waste discharge; deployed the construction of a natural resources and environment sector database; connected and integrated environmental data to the Da Nang Smart Monitoring and Operation Centre (IOC).

The city also built a subsystem to manage and supervise the exploitation and use of water resources on the database software and specialized state management of natural resources and environment, digitising coastal discharge point data on GIS platform. Currently, industrial parks and the Da Nang High-Tech Park all have centralised wastewater treatment systems with a processing capacity of 33,700m³/day and have installed automatic, continuous wastewater monitoring stations and connected data to the Da Nang Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

“With the achieved results, Da Nang has been honored three times, receiving the award ‘Smart, green, clean environmental management city’ in 2021, 2023 and 2024. The city continued to apply solutions, environmental monitoring and management technologies to contribute to the good implementation of the project ‘Building Da Nang into Environmentally city’ in the 2021 - 2030 period, responding to the orientation of ecological urban areas”, Mr. Dang Quang Vinh acknowledged.

Implementing the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 and the National Environmental Monitoring Master Plan for the 2021 - 2030 period, with a vision towards 2050, the Da Nang Department of Natural Resources and the Environment reviews and develops an environmental monitoring programme for Da Nang for the 2026 - 2030 period to ensure connectivity with the national environmental monitoring network; develops a plan for operation, maintenance, repair and periodic replacement of equipment for automatic and continuous monitoring stations in the city (including stations under investment), implement the project to build a database on the environmental sector in the 2025 - 2028 period with a total estimated cost of VND 10 billion.

Recently, the Da Nang People's Committee issued Decision No. 210/QD-UBND dated January 17, 2025 approving the project to improve environmental monitoring capacity to implement the objectives of the Project ‘Building Da Nang into Environmentally-friendly City’ in the 2021 - 2030 period with a total investment of more than VND102 billion from the city's public investment capital from 202 to 2030.

Accordingly, 2025 - 2026 period from is allocated more than 56 billion VND and from 2027-2030 more than 46 billion VND, including all expenses for setting up, supplying, installing equipment and creating necessary conditions to put the projects into normal operation, achieving the project’s goals.

The Da Nang People's Committee has assigned the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to preside over and coordinate with relevant departments, branches, localities and units to effectively implement the project to improve environmental monitoring capacity to achieve the objectives of the project ‘Building Da Nang into Environmentally- friendly City’ for the 2021 - 2030 period.

Reporting by HOANG HIEP - Translating by A.THU