HCM City has ambitious greenery plans for 2022

A park in downtown HCM City. The city plans to add at least 10ha of parks and 2ha of public green spaces, and plant or rehabilitate 6,000 trees this year to make the city greener and more beautiful. — Photo baodansinh.vn

HCM CITY — HCM City plans to add at least 10 hectares of parks and two hectares of public green spaces, and plant or rehabilitate 6,000 trees this year to make the city greener and more beautiful.

The People’s Committee has instructed districts and Thủ Đức City to make plans for this and set specific targets.

The city has also told them to quickly review and make a list of public lands that are zoned for green parks but leased out or used for other purposes, and report to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

The city has a 10-year plan (2021-30) for increasing public parks and the green cover, under which it will add at least 150ha of public parks and 10ha of public green spaces by 2025.

By 2030 there will be one square metre of park per capita and 3-4sq.m of overall green space.

Lack of green spaces

The city’s parks and green spaces do not meet the rising demand from the public or the requirements of a modern city.

A recent report by the General Department of Environment said the city targets turning 10,300ha of land into green spaces, but has only managed 445ha so far.

The average rate of greenery per capita in the city is around 2sq.m, with parks only accounting for 0.55sq.m, while each urban dweller needs around 10sq.m of green space to ensure a healthy life, it said.

HCM City has lost trees to rapid urbanisation, being uprooted or damaged while building roads and sidewalks and chopped down in large numbers to accommodate its metro lines.

It is only adding around 1.54 ha of public parks each year.  

Some outlying areas like District 12 do not have a single park.

According to statistics from the Department of Transport, the inner city (comprising 16 districts and Thủ Đức City) has 495.8ha of parks and greenery, accounting for nearly 99 per cent of the city’s total.

Nguyễn Thị Thanh Mỹ, deputy director of the environment department, said her department had added 214 small and medium-sized parks with a total area of​​ 200 ha to the zoning plan, with a focus on outlying areas, including a 3ha park at the intersection of Trần Văn Giàu and Võ Trần Chí streets in Bình Tân District and a 19.3ha Culture-Sports Park project in District 12.

It is also developing a plan to build a 322ha green park in Bình Chánh District’s Đa Phước at a cost of VNĐ3.15 trillion.

It would have specialised plants that help filter the air, block smoke and reduce odours from the Đa Phước landfill and neighbouring industrial zones, she added. — VNS