France to Fund EUR100M for Vietnam Water, Environment Projects Yearly

The French Development Agency (AFD) will annually provide EUR80 million-EUR100 million in official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam’s water and environment sanitation projects by 2015. Of the sum, 30% will be spent on clean water supply and environment sanitation improvement, Director Jean-Marc Gravallini said. The funding will focus on upgrading dyke works; repairing and expanding water supply systems; as well as developing infrastructure for the water sector. In fact, Vietnam has been officially added to the list of the nations that are facing the water shortage due to uncontrolled exploitation. The country is also facing a high risk of exhausted underground water, experts warned. The overexploitation of water resources has been blamed for situation, which has gone beyond the withstanding of the ecological system, they attributed. To improve water resources, specialists urged to build wastewater treatment systems and waste research programs as these are the mainly culprits of water source pollution in Vietnam. Since 1997, France, through different financial cooperation fools (the AFD and French Treasury) has implemented 30 projects on water and sanitation in Vietnam with a total capital of over EUR350 million, he attributed. The projects include a EUR16 million wastewater collection and treatment project in the northern province of Thai Nguyen, a EUR8.84 million wastewater and solid waste treatment project in the central city of Hoi An and a EUR16 million sewage treatment project in the southern city of Vung Tau. (Dau Tu – Investment May 18 p19, saigonnews.vn May 18)