City canal cleanup needs US$300 mil. more
By Van Nam - The Saigon Times Daily
|
| Nguyen Hoang Nhan, director of the HCMC Management Unit of Urban Upgrading Project, at the press briefing on capital needs for construction of a facility to treat household wastewater discharged into Tan Hoa - Lo Gom Canal - Photo: Van Nam |
HCMC – HCMC will need an additional US$300 million to build a major facility for treating all wastewater from thousands of families along Tan Hoa-Lo Gom Canal west of the city.
Nguyen Hoang Nhan, director of the HCMC Management Unit of Urban Upgrading Projects, told a press briefing in the city on Tuesday that the World Bank (WB) had agreed on about US$128 million in additional credit for the city to rehabilitate Tan Hoa-Lo Gom Canal and roads in the canal basin.
This sub-project No. 4 is expected to get off the ground early next year after the city completes the initial steps of selecting contractors by the year-end. It is part of the HCMC Urban Upgrading Project that has been underway since 2004 with a total budget of US$260 million.
The project is aimed at reducing flooding and improving the living conditions of 96 low-income residential areas along the eight-km polluted canal on a total area of 19 square km.
Nhan said that the sub-project was scheduled for completion by end-2014 according to a recent commitment with WB. However, he said the pollution of the canal will not be completely done away with upon sub-project completion because untreated household wastewater will still make its way into the canal.
“Therefore, it’s very important at this moment to have an additional US$300 million to build a central wastewater treatment facility with a daily capacity of some 300,000 cubic meters,” he said.
The city earlier wanted to borrow from WB to construct the facility in Tan Nhut Village of Binh Chanh District. After rounds of negotiations, WB decided to lend to the city to complete the project and improve all the areas in the canal basin.
The WB has twice agreed to provide a total of over US$250 million in loans for the city to carry out the urban upgrade project. The recent loan worth some US$128.8 million was finalized by the end of last year.
“It’s a very optimistic sign that WB has recently said it will consider providing more loans for the city to build this large wastewater treatment facility,” said the director of the management unit.
The city needs to initially build the wastewater treatment plant, then a sewage system along the canal. After that, the city will install sewers and rehabilitate the canal to transfer household wastewater from the canal to the facility.
According to the management unit, after the sub-project is finished by the end of 2014, the value of land in the canal basin consisting of districts 6, 11 and Tan Binh is projected to rise two or three times.