"It's all my fault..."
When I posted a series of photos along with the article "Nghe An launches campaign to collect waste in mangrove forests along the Lam River" (baonghean.vn, April 22, 2026) on my personal Facebook page, Mr. Nguyen Cong Thanh - Director of the Land Registration Office of Nghe An province (Facebook account owner Nguyen Cong Thanh) commented: "The cause is all our fault...".
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Content:Nhat Lan |Present:Huu QuanApril 26, 2026
When I included the photo series with the article "Nghe An province launches campaign to collect waste in mangrove forests along the Lam River.On his personal Facebook page, Mr. Nguyen Cong Thanh - Director of the Land Registration Office of Nghe An province (Facebook account owner Nguyen Cong Thanh) commented: "The cause is all our fault...".
The accumulation of waste surrounding the mangrove forests along the Lam River is caused by heavy rains and storms. Particularly in 2025, during storms number 5 and 10, the Lam River experienced high floodwaters, bringing a massive amount of waste from upstream. When the floodwaters receded, countless soft wastes such as plastic bags, old clothes, and packaging became trapped in the mangrove forests along the Lam River, along the road connecting the former Vinh city area to the coastal town of Cua Lo. These types of waste, especially plastic, are very difficult to decompose and become tightly wrapped around the trunks and branches of the mangrove trees, causing many negative impacts: environmental pollution, damage to the landscape, and hindering the development of the mangrove forest – an ecosystem that plays a crucial role in protecting riverbanks, preventing erosion of dikes, and regulating the climate.
Regarding Mr. Nguyen Cong Thanh's statement, "It's all our fault...", I understand he's referring to the current lack of environmental awareness. The word "our" here includes himself, the person providing the information (me), and many other people in the province. Though brief, his statement implies that collecting and processing waste in mangrove forests is only a temporary solution; a sustainable approach is needed – something must be done to change people's perceptions and encourage them to work together to protect the environment. And this is absolutely true.
Waste in the mangrove forests along the Lam River is confirmed to have accumulated upstream, carried by floodwaters. The Lam River, stretching approximately 400km from the Vietnam-Laos border to Cua Hoi, flows through hundreds of thousands of villages, towns, and residential areas. Tens of thousands of families, millions of people, countless markets, supermarkets, and shops generate all kinds of waste. Instead of being properly collected and processed, some of this waste is dumped into the river, carried downstream, and then carried by floodwaters to the mangrove forests along the Lam River.
That's the truth.
A small example is that every year at the end of the year, many families go to the banks of the Lam River, or the small tributaries leading to the Lam River, to release carp as a farewell to the Kitchen God. After releasing the fish, the plastic bags containing the fish, ashes, incense sticks, etc., are carelessly discarded along the riverbanks, or even thrown directly into the river. A family might have several plastic bags. If you multiply that by the tens of thousands of families along the length of the Lam River, the amount of plastic waste generated on the day of the Kitchen God's departure to heaven alone is immeasurable.
One day, while directly observing the forces of the Southern Nghe An Protective Forest Management Board collecting garbage in the mangrove forest, I asked the unit's leaders about solutions to prevent this situation from recurring. According to the leader, they will develop a plan to collect garbage annually after the rainy season; and if funding is provided by higher authorities, they will invest in a system of stakes and nets to prevent garbage from entering. Hearing this was encouraging, because it means that the mangrove forest along the Lam River, with its many genuine values, will be cared for and protected.
However, upon hearing Mr. Nguyen Cong Thanh's comment, "It's all our fault...", it became clear that the solutions proposed by the leader of the Southern Nghe An Protective Forest Management Board, while good, were only temporary and not truly sustainable. Only when every individual in society is conscious of protecting the environment will the problem of indiscriminate waste dumping cease. And only then will the mangrove forests along the Lam River truly be safe...
