The activities of volunteer groups like Hanoi Green are very commendable.
Since the beginning of the year, dozens of campaigns have been organized, contributing to cleaning up the environment, clearing the flow and spreading the message of green living to the community.
From those small but practical actions, many people are starting to pay more attention to the environment, realizing that a plastic bottle thrown into the canal today can last for decades.
However, it is also necessary to look directly at reality, volunteer groups, no matter how enthusiastic, cannot replace the responsibility of the whole society.
A group of a few dozen people cleaning up on weekends cannot run after thousands of people littering every day.
A canal that was just cleaned today may again be flooded with garbage after only a few days if community awareness does not change.
That is the paradox that exists in many cities, people who clean up trash cannot handle it, people who litter are still nonchalant.
Many canals, ditches, and ponds in Hanoi were once renovated at very high costs, but after a while, garbage reappeared, water was again polluted, and bad odors rose again.
The root cause is not because of the lack of garbage collectors, but because there are still too many people who lack awareness.
Speaking of environmental protection, many people often think of big campaigns. In fact, the simplest thing is not to litter indiscriminately.
Do not throw plastic bags into canals, do not dump garbage into sewers, do not turn ponds and lakes into waste storage yards.
If everyone could do that, the canals would have been clean for a long time. But practical experience shows that just propaganda is not enough, there must be strong enough sanctions.
Vietnamese law currently has full regulations to punish acts of littering and causing environmental pollution. The problem is that detection and handling in many places are not regular and not sufficiently deterrent.
If a person who litters is severely punished, it is not only handling a violation but also a warning to many others.
It is impossible to let the situation where people with awareness clean up, while people without awareness freely destroy. Environmental protection must start from the responsibility of each individual.
Young people are doing their part very well. They have contributed effort and time to clean up polluted canals.
The rest belongs to the community and functional agencies.
Each citizen needs to change their behavior, the government needs to strengthen inspection, supervision and strictly punish violations.
A green city is created by citizens who don't litter from the beginning.
