The results of the HCM City Department of Construction's survey show that many schools don't have the funds to take care of the trees on their grounds despite several of the trees are deteriorating and possibly posing dangers.

Some of the nursery schools in District 4 such as Nguyen Tat Thanh, Sao Mai, Dang Tran Con and Doan Thi Diem have many large trees with numerous branches and narrow roots. The department has asked the management board of Doan Thi Diem Nursery School to work together to deal with the trees but the school doesn't have the fund to hire experts nor having experiences in dealing with trees themselves.

Several primary schools such as Thanh Da, Hong Ha and Ha Huy Tap asked the authorities to help with checking and dealing with the trees.

Other schools said it was not fair when the school have to take full responsibility for the trees, especially if they have valuable trees and they can't issue the decision to cut off the tree or not. The schools have to spend VND2m per tree to hire experts to inspect and prune trees alone.

On May 26, one student was killed and 17 others were injured after a 24-year-old flamboyant tree suddenly uprooted at Bach Dang Secondary School in HCM City. The city had had heavy rains on the previous day. After the incident, many schools have asked parents to donate to take care of the trees.

On June 13, after a heavy rain, a flamboyant tree at Vanh Khuyen Nursery School in District 2 also uprooted toward to school's gate. Luckily, the incident occurred on Saturday so there was no student at school.

Le Hoai Nam, deputy director of HCM City Department of Education and Training, said, the director takes the main responsibility for tree care. Depending on the situation that the schools can hire their own gardener or hire another company. The expenses will come from each unit's allocated fund.

However, Nam admitted that this expense could be high at some points and schools may need to find other funding. Dtinews

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