Danang should adopt solutions to deal with pollution at beaches, which is caused by trash and untreated wastewater.

A beach is lined by restaurants and hotels in Danang City. Many restaurants and hotels discharge untreated wastewater into the sea

Many tourists are not aware of environmental protection, said Andrew J. Smith who is living in Danang. Local residents litter garbage, mainly plastic bags and bottles along My Khe beach in Son Tra District.

Scores of restaurants and hotels have gone up near My Khe beach, making the littering of garbage and the discharge of wastewater worse, and thus spoiling the beauty of beaches in the central coast city.

Mai Ma, director of Danang Drainage and Wastewater Treatment Company, said the drainage system either stops working or do not work efficiently when it rains and wastewater discharge is higher than the capacity of the drainage systems.

Experts and relevant agencies said that in addition to raising public awareness of environmental protection, it is necessary to carry out projects to clean up the beaches.

In early May, the Center for Environment and Community Research (CECR) in collaboration with Thanh Khe and Son Tra governments will carry out a VND1 billion project to free the beaches from plastic waste.

Nguyen Ngoc Ly, director of CECR, said the project, which is expected to be complete in March 2019, will help residents and eateries realize the importance of the environment in order to minimize garbage littering and classify garbage.

Danang Urban Environment Company will collect waste along beaches on Nguyen Tat Thanh. Pham Quang Sang, the director of the company, said the firm has installed trash cans at the beaches.

Besides, the Danang government is planning to build wastewater treatment systems along the beaches of My An, My Khe and Pham Van Dong next year.

Tran Dai Nghia, deputy head of the management board for Son Tra peninsula and Danang’s beaches, told the Daily that pollution cannot be avoided at beaches which are not taken care of, and that the city had approved a project to manage and operate these beaches for tourism in the 2018-2020 period.

SGT