Throwing garbage into the Red River, traffic fines are not enough

Image of people on a truck throwing trash into the Red River. Photo cut from clip

Traffic police issued a fine to driver Lo Van T (born in 1995, from Son La ) for parking on Chuong Duong Bridge. For parking in the middle of the bridge, driver Lo Van T will be fined 2.5 million VND and have his driver's license revoked for 2 months.

Before that, at around 3:30 p.m. on July 15, Mr. Lo Van T drove his car onto Chuong Duong Bridge, stopped the car, and then had someone throw trash into the Red River. Seeing the man throwing trash, a few passersby spoke up to remind him, but he continued to do it "innocently", considering throwing trash into the river as nothing serious.

Speaking to the police, Mr. Lo Van T explained: "Because it was an object of worship, I wanted to throw it into the Red River instead of throwing it away at the landfill. After that, I stopped the car on the bridge to let another person in the car get out and throw the trash away. I realized my violation and promised not to repeat it."

Mr. Lo Van T cannot say that, if everyone thinks and acts like him, rivers will become garbage dumps. In fact, many rivers and lakes in Hanoi are full of garbage, dirty and seriously polluted, because there are still too many people choosing ponds, lakes, rivers and streams as places to dump garbage.

The traffic police fined Mr. Lo Van T 2.5 million VND and revoked his driver's license for 2 months for parking on Chuong Duong Bridge, which is in accordance with traffic laws. However, the incident did not involve just one person with one violation, but two people with two different violations.

The second person is the young man in the red shirt, who directly threw trash into the Red River.

Article 25 of Decree 45/2022/ND-CP dated July 7, 2022 stipulates: "A fine of VND 1,000,000 to VND 2,000,000 shall be imposed for acts of dumping, disposing of, or discarding waste on sidewalks, roadsides, or into urban wastewater drainage systems or surface drainage systems; dumping wastewater in violation of regulations on sidewalks, roadsides; and disposing of plastic waste generated from daily activities into ponds, lakes, canals, rivers, streams, and seas."

The act of throwing garbage into the Red River was recorded, with evidence, the car owner Lo Van T confirmed that he stopped the car to let someone else throw garbage. It is clear that the authorities must punish the person who committed this violation.

There are laws to punish littering and environmental violations, but not many cases of littering are handled properly.

Having laws but not implementing them makes people "immune" to the law, that's why garbage floods rivers, streams, mountains, hills, and streets like today.

Source: https://laodong.vn/su-kien-binh-luan/nem-rac-xuong-song-hong-phat-vi-pham-giao-thong-la-chua-du-1368024.ldo