Government Decree 155/2016/ND-CP imposed fines of VND3 million (USD133) to VND7 million (USD313) on those littering in public spaces, including pavements, streets or sewage systems in residential areas, especially large cities like Hanoi and HCM City.
Litter on Nguyen Van Nghi Street in Go Vap District
For many years, people live along Tan Chanh Hiep 26 Street in District 12 have complained about living near a seriously-polluted canal where locals from Trung Chanh Market and other nearly resident areas would dump their rubbish into. The canal has been dredged for many times, but it has become full of waste just days later.
Litter is found on many streets in HCM City. While food stalls or even restaurants discharge waste directly into streets and nearby canals.
One-kilometre long Nguyen Van Nghi Street has a dozen of rubbish tips.
It is common to see leaflets thrown at many intersections such as Dinh Bo Linh-Bach Dang and Truong Chinh-Cong Hoa as well as streets.
According to a representative from HCM City Urban Environment Company Ltd. Co., the littering is mainly attributed to bad awareness of people along with the shortage of public dustbins and toilets.
Vo Quoc Hung, vice chairman of Ben Nghe Ward People’s Committee, claimed it was impossible to fine people despite having cameras to detect people littering, in many cases people had already left before anyone turned up to deal with the issue.
Some areas in HCM City have installed cameras to detect littering and offered payouts for people who report violations.
However, it is not easy to detect violators in many cases as the littering and urinating in public often happen quickly and at different places. So the most important measure is to raise the public awareness of this and children should be taught at how to protect the environment when they are at nursery schools.
The rewards that Tan Phu District offer people who detect violations in littering and urinating in public places range from VND500,000 to VND1.5 million.