HCM CITY — The HCM City People’s Council has passed a resolution on environmental protection and solid waste management in urban and residential areas, with the target of significantly improving the environment, an issue that has taken on urgency.

In the resolution approved at an extraordinary meeting last Sunday, the council assigned the People’s Committee with educating the public about environmental protection and reducing solid waste.

By 2018 everyone in the city has to be provided with information and education about environment protection.

In the 2018-19 academic year syllabuses of all classes will be upgraded to teach students more about environmental protection.

By 2020 the city has to fully resolve the problem of production establishments causing pollution in residential areas.

A system to monitor the quality of the city environment will be installed.

Nguyễn Thị Quyết Tâm, chairwoman of the People’s Council, said a roadmap for classifying garbage should be drawn up.

The lawmakers want the rate of families classifying garbage to reach 50 per cent by 2020 and keep rising.

Lê Hồng Sơn, head of the Department of Education and Training, said city schools had integrated environmental protection and garbage classifying into their curricula.

"Students practise what they learn at schools, but garbage collectors again mix them when transporting the rubbish to treatment plants," he said.

Tâm said the People’s Committee should pay attention to what Sơn said.

She said advanced technologies should be used for treatment of garbage so that the amount buried in landfills can be reduced from 80 per cent now to 50 per cent by 2020.

According to a report by the People’s Committee and a survey by the People’s Council, the air quality in the city is still worrisome.

Vương Đức Hoàng Quân, deputy head of the HCM City Institute for Development Studies, said besides education severe fines should also be used.

A report by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment showed that the city generates around 8,300 tonnes of domestic garbage and more than 3,000 tonnes of industrial, medical and construction waste.

The former figure is forecast to increase to 13,000 tonnes by 2025.

According to Nguyễn Toàn Thắng, the department’s head, all the garbage collected now is taken to the Đa Phước and Phước Hiệp waste treatment plants in Bình Chánh District and Củ Chi District. But environmental pollution is caused during the process of transport. —VNS