When people visit this city I think they get a good impression of the place. The beaches in the popular area are kept very clean, there are plenty of trash bins, and there are workers constantly tending to the wonderful gardens that line the popular walking areas along the long stretch of the main beach in the bustling city of Da Nang. It is great that the city does this but there is a rather terrible other side to all of this that people who are just visiting here fortunately or unfortunately don't ever get to see.
Vietnam is one of the most polluted countries in the world and if you get just a teensy bit of a way outside of the main drag or tourist area in Danang this because extremely evident very fast.
See that monster of a building in the back there? Well that is a gigantic hotel that has been under construction ever since I first moved here years ago. They seem to really be taking their time in finishing it and all of the beach area around it is constantly covered in trash. There are a couple of public beach access areas around here but I can't imagine that anyone actually desires to go swimming here after they see how much trash is all over the place. I don't generally swim here at all and a big part of the reason for that is because if there is this much trash on the sand, it is all over the place in the water as well.
You can see a few people in the far distance of this picture but as I was walking I found that most of them were Vietnamese people who are fishing in the sea, not tourists.
This particular piece of trash was quite perplexing. As I was approaching it I thought it was a unique giant stone of sorts but when I touched it with my foot it turns out it is a giant piece of Styrofoam and that is the worst kind of garbage since it never decomposes or breaks down or whatever the word is.
And of course there is always the ubiquitous plastic bottle trash that is basically everywhere in this country. Thankfully, most plastic bottles can and will be recycled by the roaming trash collectors who get a bit of money for it. These folks can be spotted just about everywhere and if it wasn't for the resale value of these bottles, I think the problem would be much much worse than it is.
It's a shame that this otherwise beautiful country is plagued with such a terrible waste management system, or one that barely even exists. I suppose this is what happens when your country has rapid expansion and development without much concern being paid to the unintended side effects of such actions.