The lack of garbage bins has been named a cause of widespread littering in Ho Chi Minh City alongside low self-respect and awareness.

The issue was raised by Nguyen Toan Thang, director of the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DONRE), at a ceremony on Monday to present the city’s Districts 1, 3, 4, and 12 with 1,200 new garbage bins.

The presentation was part of a VND700 million (US$31,250) campaign initiated by the department and Ho Chi Minh City Urban Environment Company Limited, which looks to combat chronic littering in the city.

According to DONRE statistics, the city currently generates between 7,500 and 8,000 metric tons of household waste a day, not taking into account a massive amount of garbage littered onto the streets and into water canals.

The Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe canal, which snakes nine kilometers through multiple districts of the city, is being littered with between eight and ten metric tons of garbage every day, with garbage also thrown into other canals.

According to Nguyen Quoc Thai, director of Ho Chi Minh City Urban Drainage Company (UDC), half of the city’s 69,000 storm drains are being bombarded with litter, which has resulted in slow drainage and flooding during heavy rains.

UDC dispatches as many as 200 drainage workers to remove garbage at storm drains across flooding ‘hotspots’ during heavy rains, but they are fighting an uphill battle.

“Sometimes, just as they finish clearing their third drain, the first one has already been filled up with garbage again,” Thai said at Monday’s ceremony.

A new law promising heftier fines for litterers will come into effect in February, with monetary penalties of VND5-7 million ($223-313) to be imposed on those who trash streets, sidewalks, and sewer systems.

“We hope that by increasing the number of public garbage bins in the city, local citizens would be encouraged to put away their trash at designated places,” CITENCO director Huynh Minh Nhut said.

The installation of the new trash bins will be finished before the country enters its biggest holiday season of the year at the end of January in celebration of Tet, or the Lunar New Year.

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