Authorities in Vietnam’s southern metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City have approved a $524-million environmental sanitation project for the 2015-2020 period with financial support from the World Bank (WB). The money, which is within a WB-funded Ho Chi Minh City Environmental Sanitation project with the first phrase completed in 2012 will enable the city to improve its wastewater treatment capacity in Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe basin, a “dead canal.” The first phase costs $300 million, benefiting 1.2 million local people in eight districts where the canal goes through. Water pollution remains a thorny problem in the biggest city as only 7% of wastewater in urban areas is treated while the city has 926 kilometers of canals but only 10% of its wastewater is treated and the remaining volume is directly discharged into the environment. Ho Chi Minh City is taking steps to begin in 2015 a wastewater treatment project costing VND11.28 trillion ($538 million) from Japan’s official development assistance (ODA). (Thoi Bao Kinh Te Viet Nam – Vietnam Economic Times Oct 9 p3, baodautu.vn Oct 8)
