General hygiene: Difficult but easy

(Baonghean) - To completely solve the environmental pollution situation, the People's Committee of Hung Nguyen district has issued a project to treat and collect waste in the entire district. After 4 years of implementation, the effectiveness is assessed to have reached 80% of the criteria in the project.

Coming to Hung Long commune these days, people are eagerly going to the fields to sow the spring crop, the excited atmosphere promises a bumper crop. However, what impressed us most was the clean and tidy alleys and village roads. It is known that this beautiful image has been maintained by the people of Hung Long for 4 years now and it has become a cultural feature in each village and hamlet. Along the road leading to hamlet 10, we met a farmer carrying a broom when transporting materials to the fields for production. When asked, he said that he was taking precautions to prevent materials from being scattered on the road so that he could collect them. Children playing at the beginning of the village and the end of the alley, although they were allowed to eat snacks, did not litter. Mr. Vo Hong Son, Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, said: "Since the waste collection project was born and approved by the commune-level People's Council, all 10 hamlets in the area have competed to keep the village roads and alleys clean, and each hamlet has its own set of regulations in maintaining environmental hygiene."

The road to hamlet 10, Hung Long commune (Hung Nguyen) is clean and spacious.

After the project of collecting and treating waste in Hung Long area in the period of 2011 - 2015 was approved, all levels, branches and hamlet executive committees have implemented the resolution; Hamlets have developed their own plans to implement the project with the goal of collecting waste once every 7 to 10 days and transporting it to a centralized landfill for treatment. Each association such as the Veterans Association and the Women's Association has promoted an exemplary role, taking the lead in implementing and urging relatives and neighbors to do the same. If any citizen is found littering or not collecting waste on time, the hamlet will be responsible for reminding them, and there will be sanctions for repeat offenses. Mr. Nguyen Van The - Head of Hamlet 10 said: "Every 7th, 17th and 27th of every month, each household brings their garbage to the alley entrance and the hamlet contracts with a person in the hamlet to transport it by tire cart to the collection point. The next morning, the environmental company cleans it up, there is absolutely no garbage accumulation...".

Not only in Hung Long, in Hung Xa, each hamlet and village contracts with the association, from which the association assigns members to transport all the hamlet's garbage to a selected collection point that is not located in the wind direction. Since the garbage collection project was issued, each hamlet in Hung Xa has found its own way to raise the spirit of self-awareness and awareness of preserving hygiene and the environment of each resident. All the villages and hamlets of Hung Xa have been cleaned up, and there are no longer any plastic bags of garbage left on the street.

As for Hung Thong, the project for waste treatment and collection was issued and implemented by the commune in 2012. This is one of the first communes to implement the project in the district. Along with implementing the provisions issued in the project, the commune has established a self-management team to oversee the implementation situation in all hamlets, and at 13 waste collection points, and at the same time manage the border points in hamlet 8 to control the illegal dumping of garbage in other hamlets.

Before 2011, waste treatment at the concentrated landfill in Hung Nguyen still had many shortcomings. Some people's awareness of environmental protection was not high, and there was a situation of "no one cares about public property". In that situation, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment advised the District People's Committee to develop a project to collect and transport waste to be treated at the provincial landfill and signed a contract with Vinh Urban Environment Company to transport and treat it. This activity was piloted in 4 communes including Hung Xa, Hung Long, Hung My, Hung Dao. By 2012, the district deployed it simultaneously in all communes. According to the roadmap, by the end of 2015, Hung Nguyen district will build 23 self-managed waste collection teams in 23 communes and towns. This will help to solve the problem of rural environmental sanitation and successfully implement the National Target Program on New Rural Development. However, according to the report of the District Department of Natural Resources and Environment, up to now, Hung Trung, Hung Yen Nam and Hung Yen Bac communes have not yet issued a project to the villages, but have handled it themselves in the "each person does it on their own" manner.

The current concern in the issue of waste collection in rural areas in general is that the maintenance cost for the collection "machine" is more than the sanitation fee collected from the people, so the awareness of each person in the issue of maintaining public hygiene becomes more important. Therefore, the way of doing things in the communes of Hung Nguyen district is a model that many localities can refer to in order to build villages and hamlets that are increasingly spacious, clean and beautiful.

Article and photos:Russia