A contest to find the best ideas for solving environmental problems has recently concluded in Da Nang. 

Dinh Thi Huong Giang and her teacher

Organised by the municipal Department of Education and Training, the event was part of a series of activities in response to the city’s project entitled ‘Building Da Nang into an Environmentally-friendly City’.

It was open to all teachers and pupils from junior and senior high schools across the city.  A total of 12 ideas created by teachers, and 38 others by pupils, were shortlisted for the final round of the contest.

In the end, a total of 6 first, 11 second and 16 third prizes were awarded.  Amongst them were 7^th-grade Dinh Thi Huong Giang and 8^th-grade Nguyen Thi My Hanh from the Tay Son Junior High School.

Giang took first prize for her idea to develop a bus service to take local pupils to their schools.  Under her new model, parents would take their children to the bus station closest to their home, and the children would then be taken to school.  It would therefore help parents to save time, and protect the local environment.

Initially, the routes would operate in Hai Chau and Thanh Khe districts.  The buses would operate at speeds of between 30km and 40km per hour, and it would take them between 15 and 20 minutes to make each trip.

Giang also expressed her strong desire to improve on her bus service model by suggesting that the buses might be operated using either biofuel or solar power in accordance with the city’s target to become an environmentally-friendly city.

Nguyen Thi My Hanh

Meanwhile, Hanh was awarded a second prize for her idea to use botanical solutions to treat the lake water at the city’s 29 March Park and bring a healthier living environment for nearby local residents.  The botany would include vetiver grass, water bamboo, floating water-hyacinth, and willow.

Hanh remarked, “To bring my idea to fruition, more activities would need to take place including analysing the quality of the water in the lake, building more auxiliary works, and finding suitable botanical suppliers”.