Apart from active involvement of local residents in protecting the environment, expats in Da Nang and international organisations are enthusiastically contributing to helping the city become more green, clean and beautiful.

A Japanese expert (left) from the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) got involved in sorting and collecting resource waste at a residential area in Thanh Khe Tay Ward, Thanh Khe District in May 2022. Photo: HOANG HIEP

Active involvement of foreignerss in waste sorting and collection

Every month, Mr. Koichi Akiyama, the Director General of Kane-M Da Nang Company Limited located in Hoa Khanh Industrial Park (IP), Lien Chieu District joins company’s employees for collecting scattered garbage inside and outside the fence of the factory and along the road No. 6 in Hoa Khanh IP.

In response to National Action Month for the Environment and the Viet Nam Sea and Island Week, and the World Environment Day (June 5), in the last weekend, Mr. Koichi Akiyama initiated a cleanup programme to clear and collect garbage at local beaches and the protective poplar forest along the coastal Nguyen Tat Thanh Route within the 1.5km section from Tran Dinh Tri Street to Xuan Thieu Tourist Area. The clean-up event saw the participation of 605 employees from Kane-M Da Nang Company Limited.

Mr. Koichi Akiyama encouraged active participation of the company’s employees and even directly get involved in picking up trash and broken glass pieces, cigarette butts that were left indiscriminately in the protective poplar forest where many people, especially children, came to roam.

Mr. Koichi Akiyama also called on the company’s employees to continue to participate his initiated program whenever the company launches.

He hopes that the clean-up program will make Lien Chieu District, and Da Nang as a whole, cleaner and more beautiful.

Meanwhile, Mr. Yasuhiko Hotta, Makoto Tsukiji, Mr Toru Nishiyama, and Ms. Miho Hayashi who are working at the IGES have paid regular visits to Da Nang in a bid to support the implementation of environmental protection and management projects although they do not live and work in Da Nang.

Japanese experts from the IGES came to Da Nang to conduct a survey on its environmental management system as well as join hands with local residents in sorting waste at source in residential areas in the two districts Hai Chau and Thanh Khe from May 19 - 24 following the city’s successful management of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Besides, Japanese experts worked with the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment to depploy the second phase of the " Promoting Waste Separation at Source for Recycling" Project which is funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The the second phase of the project costs a total of VND 15.6 billion and runs until 2024.

Mr To Van Hung, the Director of the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment said that IGES which a non-governmental organization operating in the field of the environment has made a positive contribution to environmental protection in Da Nang in recent years. Specifically, experts from IGES have joined forces with Japan’s Yokohama City to support Da Nang to successfully implement the Solid Waste Management Project in efforts to promote classification and recycling of urban domestic waste in the 2017-2020 period at a total cost of VND 11.1 billion.

Futhermore, experts from the IGES and the Japanese Ministry of the Environment provided assistance for the city to develop the ‘Turning Da Nang into An Environmental City’ Project in the 2021-2030 period, faciliate the implementation of the cooperation program between Yokohama City and Da Nang to move towards a low-carbon society in the 2021-2023 period at a total cost of more than VND 7.1 billion.

Efforts to build an environmental city

Mrs Nguyen Thi Kim Ha, the Deputy Head of the Environmental Protection Division under the muncipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment said that Da Nang has been receiving much support from domestic and foreign organizations and international experts to implement environmental projects. As a result,12 projects totalling over VND 70 billion have been funded by domestic and foreign organizations in order to support the city’s scheme themed ‘Turning Da Nang into An Environmental City’ in the 2021-2024 period.

The municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment will continue its efforts to call for more support from  domestic and foreign organizations in sucessfully implementing the city’s scheme themed ‘Turning Da Nang into An Environmental City’ in the 2021-2030 period.

The city is in need of resource support to develop standards for urban works and environmental technical infrastructure, develop renewable energy sources, buil an environmental quality monitoring system, create ecological industrial parks, green industrial facilities, and promote resource circulation and efforts to lessen environmental impact through waste reduction and other methods.

Moreover, the city needs assistance to develop a smart traffic management system, improve wastewater collection and treatment system, improve waste management and resource efficiencies, promote waste reduction and recycling, and build a sustainable resource-circulating society

Da Nang is also in need of help in creating urban parks, conservating nature, improving the landscape in ecological lakes, irrigation lakes and canals, as well as tackling floods and polution and more in an attempt to make the city healthier and more sustainable.

Reporting by HOANG HIEP – Translating by H.L