In places like Soc Trang, where many people are farmers and so live off the land here, water is very important. Unfortunately, keeping the water here clean is becoming more and more of a challenge.
Pollution is one of the main reasons why water sources in Soc Trang and throughout Vietnam are not as clean as they were in the past. A few decades ago, the Vietnamese government started to make a lot of changes to the economy in Vietnam. These changes led to more companies, factories and farms being built. People started to use more land to make and grow things and started to open more markets and businesses like restaurants and cafes too. This meant that the country had more food and both people and the government started to make more money. However, since then, people in Vietnam have been producing a lot of waste. The waste from factories, from building things, from processing food for people and animals and from farming in Vietnam is often dumped into bodies of water around the country. Plastic waste has become an especially big problem throughout Vietnam. In Soc Trang, for example, plastic bags, bottles and containers are used almost everywhere. If these plastic items are not reused, they are ususally thrown away. Even though trash is collected every day here and some people do find ways to recycle plastics, you can spot trash and plastic items on most streets and in the rivers in Soc Trang. That's because for many people here, just like for many people around the world, making money is seen as more important than protecting the environment.
