The Binh Hung sewage treatment plant in Binh Chanh District, funded with ODA loans, has a capacity of 141,000 cubic metres a day (Source: VNA)Nguyen Thi Thanh My, deputy director of the city’s Department ofNatural Resources and Environment, said the population boom and an increase inthe number of industrial zones had contributed to the backlog.
More than 13 industrial complexes in HCM City do not have wastecollection and treatment facilities.
Most of them are located in the middle of residential areas indistricts 7, 8, 12, Binh Tan, Thu Duc, Binh Chanh, Cu Chi and Hoc Mon.
Other industrial parks and industrial complexes have wastewatertreatment systems, but they do not operate efficiently.
In addition, the city has 42 residential area projects of at least20 hectares each. By the end of last year, 20 of the projects had opened, butonly half had wastewater treatment system, according to My.
Under a plan, HCM City is building 12 wastewater treatment plantsnear canals and rivers.
To date, only the first phase of the Binh Hung wastewatertreatment plant has been built, with a capacity of 141,000 cubic metres a day.
The plant collects and treats wastewater in districts 1, 3, 5 and8 and Tau Hu-Ben Nghe and Đoi-Te canals.
Investment procedures on six plants have yet to be completed,while site clearance has not started.
The city has operated the Binh Hung Hoa wastewater treatmentstation with a capacity of 30,000 cubic metres a day near Tan Hoa-Lo Gom canal.
The Binh Hung Hoa wastewater treatment station and Binh Hungplant, whose capacity totals 171,000 cubic metres a day, can treat only 13.2 percentof household wastewater in the city.
Local authorities attribute the problem to financial turmoil and aheavy reliance on foreign investment, which has slowed down progress of manywastewater treatment projects.
My said the city had asked the Steering Centre of Urban FloodControl Programme to implement projects on schedule and call on investment inthe field.
The Department of Natural Resources and Environment is responsiblefor improving inspection over sources discharging wastewater and strictlyhandling violators of the Environmental Protection Law.
It also is responsible for forcing all new urban areas with anarea of 20 hectares or more to build wastewater treatment systems, she said.
The city is calling for investment in 12 wastewater treatmentplants to treat three million cubic metres of wastewater per day in the city.
The Department of Planning and Investment is preparing regulationsfor environmental projects, which will be carried out under a public privatepartnership (PPP).
A number of investors have offered suggestions on plans to developwastewater treatment facilities.
In 2015, the consortium of Phu Dien Construction Trading andInvestment JSC and SFC Vietnam Investment Development for Environment Corp. investednearly 1.9 trillion VND (84.9 million USD) to build the Tham Luong-Ben Catwastewater treatment plant in district 12, under the Build-Transfer (BT) mode.
Also in 2015, the Trung Nam Construction and Investment JSCproposed building the North Sai Gon plant under a public-private partnershipwith an estimated investment of hundreds of millions of USD.
Meanwhile, the first phase of Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe wastewatertreatment plant was built last year with a capacity of 480,000 cubic metres perday at a cost of 478 million USD.
Luu Van Tan, of the Steering Centre for Urban Flood Control, saideach of the 12 wastewater treatment projects that need investment has around 10registered investors, both local and foreign.
HCM City is trying to choose the best investors to ensure mutualbenefits for the city, investors and residents.
Vietnam has a total of 15 urban areas, 298 industrial parks and878 industrial complexes.
However, up to one-third of the export processing zones,industrial parks and industrial complexes do not have sufficient wastetreatment systems.-VNA
VNA
