KienGiang (VNS/VNA) — The Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang has begun to🌞 increase wastetreatment on islands and along coasts to protect the environment.

Ithas two island districts, Phu Quoc and Kien Hai, coastal cities Ha Tien and RachGia and coastal districts Kien Luong, Hon Dat, Chau Thanh, An Bien, and An Minh. PhuQuoc and Kien Hai, which are tourist attractions, are stepping up wastetreatment and popularising it. InJune last year the former chose the first Saturday of every month as ‘the Dayfor Phu Quoc Environment’. The campaign has improved public awareness ofsanitation, environmental protection and the efficiency of rubbish collection. Theisland generated around 155 tonnes of rubbish a day in 2018, the last year forwhich data is available, but only collected 90 tonnes and dumped them inlandfills. KienHai now generates 14.6 tonnes of waste a day and collects 80 percent of it anddump in landfills. In areas where rubbish is not collected, authorities tellresidents to bury or burn them. Theprovince's Department of Natural Resources and Environment has asked theMinistry of Natural Resources and Environment and the People’s Committee toallocate funds to expand rubbish collection and close temporary landfills,build waste transit stations and solid waste treatment plants in Phu Quoc andKien Hai, and create models for collecting and treating waste on islands. Itwants island communes far from the mainland like Hon Dat and Tho Chu in Phu Quocdistrict to be given priority in building manual incinerators to burn householdrubbish.  Installationof one such incinerator, diesel-fuelled, in Ha Tien city’s Tien Hai island communein 2017 has improved waste treatment there. Ithas a daily capacity of 1.5 tonnes. TheTien Hai waste collection group that manages the incinerator said seven toeight cubic metres of rubbish arrive daily. After collecting the rubbish, thegroup transports it to the incinerator and dries it first. Ithas advised residents to clean up their neighbourhoods and put waste indesignated places so that it can collect all the waste. Nowit regularly cleans up streets, beaches and tourism areas. Besides installing the incinerator, Tien Hai commune has also been exchanging plastic waste for rice sinceMay. This campaign was created by the local units of theFatherland Front Committee, the Women’s Union, the Farmers'Association and the Veterans' Association.   Members of the public can come to the commune's People’sCommittee to exchange two kilogrames of plastic waste for one kilogramme ofrice every Thursday./.