I know that I just finished writing something a few days ago talking about how there is no devastation in Danang and the media makes it out to be much bigger than it actually is. So I thought I would show you what DaNang was really going though and it is a lot more tame than the awful picture the news tries to paint.
While there has been zero flooding in Danang city, there has been a lot of high winds and rather violent seas that kicked up a bunch of trash and debris on the beaches. It wasn't a pretty sight but also, there wasn't any real reason to hurry to clean it up because it was just going to be replaced in the next few days as the high winds carried on every day.
The winds are starting to die down and I was walking along the beach yesterday and spotted some of the efforts to start the cleanup now that the storms have passed.
It's good that they clean this up but it is also kind of eye-opening when you look and see what this beach trash actually is. While some of it is organic such as coconut and palm tree branches a lot of it is regular garbage that was discarded improperly.
I walked about 5km yesterday and there were piles like this every couple hundred meters or so. This is in the areas where tourists stay. I have heard that further up the beach in the Son Tra area where almost nobody stays in hotels, that the beach is still very dirty and is likely to stay that way for a while because the people who clean it up need to put their efforts where it is needed the most.
The beach doesn't look so exotic these days but some people still make their way out to the sand. These two were kicking a soccer ball back and forth and it was kind of funny because the winds are still pretty strong and it would blow the ball really far away from them on a regular basis.
While this probably doesn't look so great for anyone unfamiliar with the season and the area. I think they are doing a pretty good job. This is the off-season for tourism anyway, so there really isn't much reason to hurry. Also, since the storm isn't all the way over, coming in and moving all the sand back down to the water would be a waste of time because if the high winds pick back up again, it is just going to put it right back on the pavement.
There were a few people milling about on this windy and cloudy day,but it was not at all packed with tourists and I really prefer that. I don't mind not having sun!
When I was looking closer at this waste that is sitting here and waiting for pickup I noticed one thing that the government should really address. Almost all of this trash appears to be something that comes from the fishing industry that operates off the coast. So that means that these guys are just throwing everything overboard.
That always amazes me that people whose paychecks depend on the viability of the ocean would care so little about keeping it in good shape. Surely they realize that if they destroy the home of the fish that they will no longer have jobs?
I don't want to sound like I am moaning though. I think that the local workers are doing a really good job and working pretty rapidly to get this cleaned up. I would like it if someone in charge would address the fact that most of this garbage shouldn't be here at all. I can understand the plants but all that plastic trash would will be floating around in the ocean if the storms hadn't washed it all up on the shore.
I think that in a couple of weeks the storm will be totally gone and therefor so will the piles of debris.
That's really a lot of trash, and yeah, if they weren't wash away here on the shore they'll surely stay in the middle of the ocean and who knows how much sea creatures will suffer from it. This is just the same here in the Philippines. And when there's floodings, that's when they will all afloat. Aigooooo.
⋆ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇ ғᴏʀ sᴏᴜᴛʜᴇᴀsᴛ ᴀsɪᴀɴ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ ᴏɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ
⋆ sᴜʙsᴄʀɪʙᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ
⋆ ғᴏʟʟᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ ᴠᴏᴛɪɴɢ ᴛʀᴀɪʟ
⋆ ᴅᴇʟᴇɢᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ʟɪɴᴋs 25 ʜᴘ⇾50 ʜᴘ⇾100 ʜᴘ⇾500 ʜᴘ⇾1,000 ʜᴘ
This is actually rather scary to think a vast majority of the garbage came from the sea and was washed up. I think it is already getting to the point of eating fish will be unhealthy due to the high plastic content in the fish. I saw some stats a while ago and how many plastic particles are found in fish. Certain fish have a higher plastic count than others, but even talking about this shows how wrong society is because it should never be happening.