Authorities of Vietnam’s southern province of Binh Duong August 31 signed a cooperation deal with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on the second phase of a project to improve the water quality. The project’s second phase will focus improving the living environment for local residents in Thuan An town, including polluted Ba Bo canal. Ba Bo canal, running through Ho Chi Minh City’s Thu Duc district and Di An and Thuan An districts in Binh Duong, is contaminated by large amounts of wastewater discharged by surrounding industrial parks and around 10,000 local households. JICA said the project is feasible, making great contributions to the environment protection and improving living conditions for the local people, adding that it will ask the Japanese government to provide official development assistance (ODA) loans for the project. In the project’s first phase, JICA provided over VND1.5-trillion ODA loans to the province to build a wastewater treatment plant with a daily capacity of 17,650 cu.m in Thu Dau Mot town. The first phase, slated for completion and put into operation by 2013, will collect domestic wastewater for more than 50,000 people in Thu Dau Mot town. Japan has financed $8 million for 113 projects in 26 Vietnamese cities and provinces since 1995. The projects are mainly focus on education, health, agriculture and rural infrastructure. (vietnamplus.vn Aug 31)
