The Hanoi government has rolled out a spate of measures to ease air pollution which has worsened during the winter and been hazardous to its citizens, VnExpress quoted Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee Nguyen Duc Chung as saying.

Chung said that improving the city’s environment and its residents’ life quality is a key task that the municipal government will persevere in a sustainable manner.

Nguyen Chi Thanh - Kim Ma overpass in Hanoi on December 24 morning. Photo: Hoang Dong

"It took Germany's Frankfurt 26 years and Austria's Vienna 32 years to build a green and clean city, Hanoi can do faster thanks to modern machinery," the Hanoi mayor said at a meeting in early December.

Chung added that, to solve environmental issues, including air pollution, Hanoi has cooperated with France's Aqua Rich Group since early 2016. The group is monitoring to provide anti-pollution solutions for the whole France and air pollution treatment consultancy for Beijing.

"I have signed with the French ambassador an agreement to cooperate with this group to research and propose solutions to environmental pollution in general, including air pollution," Chung said.

For dealing with the 12 causes of air pollution, the Hanoi mayor said that the municipal government had rolled out some urgent solutions such as using vacuum cleaners to clean streets instead of manually sweeping or washing, and starting construction of three waste-to-energy incinerators with the latest technology.

Hanoi also asked investors to import machinery to demolish and scrap waste, carry out dust-free sorting out for iron and concrete. The local authorities have conducted a communication campaign to ask farmers not to burn straw, but the results have not met expectations.
Besides, the program of planting one million new trees for the period of 2016-2020 has been completed ahead of schedule. The city aims to plant 600,000 more trees and 200 hectares of forests by the end of 2020 to improve the environment.

However, Chung stressed that the Hanoi government alone cannot radically deal with air pollution and needs the participation of relevant government bodies.

The municipal mayor also called for the support of each citizen and each family in protecting the environment by saying no to straw burning and charcoal stove using, among others.