Green travel from trains

Since September, Phu Quy sea has been windy, so tourists from other places rarely travel to the island. Boats going to Phu Quy and back to the mainland have mostly islanders as passengers.

Thanks to that, the number of people getting seasick and vomiting is not much and the amount of plastic bags thrown into the trash can on the ship is also less, at least stopping at about half a kilo of all kinds of trash. But if you calculate the total number of passengers of the ships going in and out every day and every month, the amount of plastic trash collected is not small. Ships going to Phu Quy will dump that amount of hard-to-decompose trash on the island, for the island's garbage treatment plant to handle. But that is really annoying, because it's like adding a drop of water to the cup, when the sea area of Phu Quy island is the intersection of two ocean currents, so ocean plastic waste concentrates all year round according to the wind seasons. Especially during the southwest monsoon, trash washes up on the island, affecting people's lives and being a burden for the garbage treatment unit. On the way back, ships dump that amount of trash at Phan Thiet port. Even though it's on the mainland, everything is more convenient than on the island, but the same situation of ocean trash washing up on the coast during the southwest monsoon, so the extra trash that needs to be handled is an additional concern that needs to be addressed.

High-speed passenger ship on the Phu Quy - Phan Thiet route. Photo: N. Lan

That is the official amount of garbage on board, but the garbage that passengers throw into the sea, from soft drink bottles to plastic bags containing snacks... despite the fact that on the ships going to the island, there are posters and propaganda photos about not throwing garbage into the sea and many other activities to protect the environment, it still happens regularly. Is there a change in awareness in each of those small behaviors? The answer is yes, but it will take a long time. Therefore, while waiting for a unified result, the solution that environmentalists have proposed is that the 6 high-speed ships going to Phu Quy Island should simultaneously use paper bags instead of plastic bags. Currently, only 1 ship has used paper bags, the remaining 5 ships have not. If all ships deploy simultaneously, it will prevent littering and make it easier to handle garbage in 2 places.

At the meeting to review 2 years of implementing Resolution No. 06-NQ/TU dated October 24, 2021 of the Provincial Party Committee (term XIV) on tourism development to 2025, with a vision to 2030, Provincial Party Secretary Duong Van An stated that the most important concern for Phu Quy tourism development is environmental protection. At the same time, he also directed Phu Quy island district to build a model of passenger ships that do not use plastic bags...

According to information from the People's Committee of Phu Quy district, in the first 10 months of 2023, the island welcomed 134,479 visitors, while in 2022 it welcomed 95,300 visitors, and in 2021 it welcomed 40,151 visitors. This shows that the tourism industry of Phu Quy district is developing quite strongly and attracting a number of visitors exceeding expectations. Previously, with its own characteristics, Phu Quy determined to develop "Green Tourism" and must be sustainable. In the past time, the entire political system of the district has proposed many solutions, actively directed, propagated and mobilized to clean up and protect the environment, determined to build Phu Quy island district "Green - Clean - Beautiful"; associated with implementing solutions to protect water resources, building rainwater reservoirs to supplement groundwater for the island, increasing groundwater permeability for the island... But with the forecast that next year the number of visitors to the island will continue to increase, the story of having to build green tourism from the ships is necessary and should be implemented soon. Because the Lunar New Year is coming, when the sea breeze blows gently, tourists will board ships to the island to have fun, so relevant departments and units need to support Phu Quy in building green ships.

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