The event was held in collaboration with Nam Dinh Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DoNRE), Giao Thuy People's Committee, Giao Thuy Youth Union, Quat Lam People's Committee and related stakeholders.

This activity was conducted in response to the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) programme, which was initiated over 30 years ago in the United States by the Ocean Conservancy and is currently being implemented in hundreds of countries in the world.

The coastal clean-up activity has been introduced by MCD and implemented regularly in Nam Dinh for many years. The event was also in response to the Anti-Plastic Waste Movement launched by Vietnam in June 2019.

Ho Thi Yen Thu, standing deputy director of MCD said, “The Community Coastal Clean-up event is annually organised by the MCD for coastal areas to promote the participation of coastal communities in keeping the environment clean, green and blue."

"Thereby enhancing awareness and responsibility about, and promoting practical action of everyone in reducing coastal waste, preserving the coastal ecosystems and environment. MCD believes that the Community Coastal Clean-up activity in Quat Lam is one of the meaningful initiatives for the 'Joining hands to make the world cleaner' initiative in 2023 in Nam Dinh and contributes effectively to promote the implementation of the Action Plan on marine plastic waste management until 2030.”

Participants included representatives of the local authorities, government agencies and mass organisations and over 250 volunteers, mostly local youth, students and local community representatives. Data and information obtained from the Community Coastal Clean-up activity will contribute to the global ICC database.

Do Quang Trung, deputy director of Nam Dinh DoNRE said, “We are honoured to be the focal point to cooperate with MCD to implement many projects and activities for environmental protection in Nam Dinh. We appreciate MCD's efforts and donors' support for our province, especially in activities for communities such as capacity building and communications."

"We believe that this event already contributed to attracting attention and promoting concrete actions of government agencies, mass organisations and communities on issues related to the environment protection in general and marine plastic waste management in particular," he added.

Nguyen Tien Tung, Deputy Chairman of Giao Thuy People's Committee said, “The solid waste situation at the coast of Quat Lam town, Giao Thuy district is a challenging issue. Solid waste comes here from various sources, such as from the mainland through the river to the sea, from tourism and also from the activities of the community living locally."

"We believe that the Community Coastal Clean-up activity helps all local people, task forces and the youth in Giao Thuy district to have a better awareness about the issue and take their responsibility to protect the environment, and also promotes the practice of proper waste collection, separation, reuse and recycling and no dumping into the river or sea," Dung said.