Fourteen photos have been selected from thousands of entries to win awards at a photo contest featuring the plastic and environment in Viet Nam.
The photo contest, themed ‘Story of Plastic Waste’, was organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Although the winners were previously announced, due to COVID the awards ceremony only took place in Ha Noi on Monday.
The main prizes were awarded to the three best works; "Van nan rac thai nhua” (Plastic Waste Problem) by Nguyen Doan Ket, "Vi giam doc tre me nhat rac” o Da Nang: 10 nam don ve sinh khong cong duoi day bien" (The young director who loves to pick up trash in Da Nang: 10 years of unpaid cleaning in the seabed) by Nguyen Giang Nam and “Tai che nhua” (Plastic Recycling) by Tran Van Tuy.
A photo from the prize-winning photo series "The young director who loves to pick up trash in Da Nang" by Nguyen Giang Nam. — Photo courtesy of the photographer
The photo contest received 8,434 works from many different sources, including students and lecturers of more than 40 universities, colleges and high schools; journalists from more than 30 press agencies; photographers of the Viet Nam Association of Photographic Artists and more than 20 local photography clubs across the country.
It was organised to raise public awareness about the management of household and plastic waste, thereby making people and businesses more aware of the negative impacts of improper waste management on human health and the environment.
Along with this event, UNDP and Viet Nam General Department of Sea and Islands launched the campaign “Non, bien chung tay - Don ngay rac nhua” (Mountains and sea together - Clean up plastic waste) to call for action to recycle, reuse and reduce single-use plastic waste.
In addition, UNDP also introduced to the public the application San Rac (Garbage Hunting) - a mobile application to report and monitor all illegal, spontaneous landfills in Viet Nam. Users can take photos and record information on the application about illegal garbage spots on the "Garbage Hunting" Map, thereby helping local authorities, stakeholders and people to handle them promptly.
