Group of five people clean up garbage, clear canals in Ho Chi Minh City

It has only been established for more than 3 months with an initial number of only 2 members, currently Saigon Xanh group has only 5 members. However, the small number of members at the present time does not stop the group’s enthusiasm, love for the environment and spirit for the community, by making efforts to change the color of clean clothes for long-polluted canals in Ho Chi Minh City. Green Saigon members are all young, only in their twenties. Team leader Nguyen Luong Ngoc (nicknamed Shin, 27) said the group was founded because it was inspired by the Padawara group in Indonesia. Also busy with work to make ends meet like everyone else, but the Saigon Xanh group still tries to spend about 4-5 times per week on garbage removal activities, clearing canals. To take advantage of time, this work is usually started very early and with careful preparation in advance. Every time they go on the road, seeing where there is a lot of garbage and standing water, the group uses their phones to take pictures of the survey and then plan to collect garbage and clean the canals. The group also noted caution in garbage removal, cleaning, upholding safety criteria. In addition to basic tools for scavenging such as large baskets, plastic bags, rakes, ropes … Young people carefully equip themselves with 3 layers of gloves: the innermost medical gloves, the middle cut-off gloves, and the outermost are waterproof rubber gloves. “Most of the waste under the canals is toxic, sometimes there are bloodstained needles. In addition to gloves, members of the team were fitted with specialized protective clothing and administered tetanus vaccines before heading down to the canal to clean up garbage.” – Mr. Ngo Nhat Duy member of Saigon Green: The work is also divided reasonably to speed up the progress. Each member undertakes a stage of work and coordinates smoothly with each other: 1 person rakes garbage, 2 people pick up garbage, 1 person pulls garbage to the shore and the other collects garbage floating on the surface of the canal. After each cleanup, the team will take the garbage bags to local garbage collection trucks or drop off the garbage at people’s garbage collection points. The black, stinking canals littered with garbage of all kinds and the needles mixed in them did not deter Green Saigon. Although newly operated, the group of young people has changed the appearance of many “black spots” of waste such as Hy Vong Canal (Tan Binh district), Xuyen Tam canal (Binh Thanh district) and canals in District 12, Go Vap district, Thu Duc city… The young people of Green Saigon have joined hands to contribute to the green color of the city named after Uncle, the blue color of the country without worrying about their own interests or time and efforts. Clean up dry garbage on the ground in urban areas, clean up coastal garbage, clean up garbage in beautiful landscapes attracting tourists,… Inherently hard and precious, how rewarding it is to clean up waste in urban areas, especially in such heavily contaminated canal environments. In recent years, the fact that young people have raised their voices and participated in many environmental actions is a move to show that young people are increasingly interested in urgent environmental issues and have really made green, positive and responsible movements with the problem of plastic waste, current status of climate change and environmental protection in general. Source: Tien Phong newspaper