Towards a green, sustainable city

After being recognized as a second-class city, Di An has set a basic goal of achieving criteria of the first-class city by 2025. The city has focused its urban planning on the principle of ensuring the sustainable development of ecosystems in urban areas, creating more green spaces, water surface and functional areas that must satisfy criteria on environmental quality and economic development.

Taking people, quality of life as center

Di An city has met most of the criteria of a second-class city. The city has invested in many key infrastructure projects, urban-residential areas, apartment buildings, promoting the local socio-economic development. However, there are still a few unsatisfactory criteria of second-class urban areas that Di An city is trying to overcome, such as: Land for construction of public works at unit level; health facilities; the proportion of roads in residential areas with illumination; the rate of urban wastewater treated to meet technical standards...

Di An city is focusing on urban planning under the principle of ensuring sustainable development, satisfying criteria on environmental quality with economic development. In picture: Forces getting involved in activities to protect the environment

According to Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Tuong Van, in the upcoming development period, Di An city needs to further focus on realizing innovation in urban planning thinking, theory and methods; ensure that urban planning must have a long-term, synchronous and modern vision, taking people and quality of life as the center; urban culture and civilization as the foundation for development; harmoniously combining the process of urbanization and urban development with industrialization and modernization, building new-style rural areas and restructuring the economy, managing social development, ensuring national defense and security.

Di An city also needs to consider reviewing and assessing development in depth, considering challenges, opportunities for the local development in the development context of Binh Duong province, Ho Chi Minh city, Southeastern region; make the construction and connection of technical infrastructure, social infrastructure and urban space synchronously; prioritize investment in key projects in the fields of urban landscape, social housing, upgrade urban public works, realize environmental treatment of waste and wastewater.

Meeting conditions on environmental protection

Currently, Di An city is focusing on urban planning and has basically completed the adjustment of urban development planning for the period of 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050. According to the local development orientation, Di An city will be an industrial-service-educational city, a traffic hub by road, railway and a part of waterways in the Southern province of Binh Duong region and the Eastern region of Ho Chi Minh city by 2030.

According to Nguyen Thanh Huy, Vice-Chairman of Di An city’s People's Committee, the implementation and approval of detailed planning for urban development areas, cultural and sports centers, residential and commercial areas... all follow the principle of ensuring the sustainable development of the ecosystem in the urban area, creating more green spaces, water surface and functional areas that must satisfy criteria on environmental quality and economic development.

In the waste collection work, the city has coordinated with the Public Works Enterprise to strengthen the monitoring of the generated volume of garbage collection units that are transferred to the Tan Binh daily solid waste transfer station and make a detailed list of households registering for garbage collection to understand the volume of domestic waste generated. Currently, the rate of waste collection in 7 wards is over 98%; solid waste treatment rate reaches 100%.

As for the standard rate of urban wastewater being treated to meet technical standards, Di An city now has 1 wastewater treatment plant under the South Binh Duong water environment improvement project with the designed capacity of 80,000 cubic meters per day. The factory has officially operated in phase 1 with the capacity of 20,000 cubic meter per day since 2018 with a domestic wastewater collection network in 5 wards: Tan Dong Hiep, Di An, Dong Hoa, An Binh and Tan Phu 1 quarter in Tan Binh ward. In the coming time, provincial People's Committee will expand its domestic wastewater collection network in the remaining wards and neighborhoods (phase 2) as well as further increasing the capacity of the existing wastewater treatment plant by 20,000 cubic meters per day.

Nguyen Thanh Huy, Vice-Chairman of Di An city’s People's Committee said that Di An city’s Wastewater Branch is coordinating with the city’s People's Committee and relevant authorities to call for people to register to connect to the local wastewater treatment and collection system for better development. For new housing construction, it is mandatory to connect wastewater to the existing wastewater collection system. For new urban areas and apartment buildings, they are mandatory to have a waste water collection and treatment system.  If not having the system, they need to connect to the city's wastewater collection system.

Speaking at the announcement ceremony of the Prime Minister's decision to recognize Di An as a second-class city under Binh Duong province, Vo Van Minh, Chairman of provincial People's Committee emphasized that with the goal of completing criteria of a first-class city by 2025 with many problems that need to be solved, Di An city needs to focus on implementing steps to adjust the city's general planning and plan to overcome weak and missing criteria when the city is recognized as a second-class city. The development of solutions to quickly complete unsatisfactory standards will help Di An city develop further in the process of socio-economic development and contribute to the construction of Binh Duong smart city.

Reported by Triet Nhan-Pham An-Translated by Kim Tin