Ho Chi Minh City treats 131,000 m3 of wastewater per day, but the Tham Luong - Ben Cat plant in District 12, with an investment capital of VND1,870 billion, has only reached about 10% of its capacity due to a lack of collection sewers.
Tham Luong - Ben Cat wastewater treatment plant covers an area of over 2.3 hectares, started in 2015 with a total investment of 1,870 billion VND. In July 2017, the project completed phase one, capable of treating 131,000 m3 of wastewater per day for a basin area of over 2 hectares, including Go Vap district and part of district 12, Binh Thanh, where there are about 700,000 people. Through water treatment, the plant also helps reduce pollution in Tham Luong canal, Vam Thuat river, Saigon.
Tham Luong - Ben Cat wastewater treatment plant is located on the Vam Thuat River, District 12. Photo: Document
The factory is being developed under a BT (build-transfer) contract, with Phu Dien Investment, Construction and Trading Joint Stock Company as the investor. This is also the first project in the city in the environmental sector to apply this form. The investor uses many modern technologies, uses solar panels, and treats odors, so it can be built close to residential areas.
Despite modern investment, over the past 7 years, the factory has always lacked wastewater to treat due to the incomplete sewer collection system. Currently, the operating capacity here is 10%, equivalent to 13,000-15,000 m3 per day. In 2018, Ho Chi Minh City signed a contract with the investor to manage, operate and maintain the factory for 5 years, or until there is enough wastewater to operate at 33% capacity. However, this rate has not been achieved so far, so the investor continues to operate and maintain, with the city paying the costs.
Explaining why the factory cannot operate at full capacity, a representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Infrastructure Construction Investment Project Management Board said that in parallel with the project implementation process, the city had previously planned to synchronize the sewer lines to collect water. This collection system is a part of the Ho Chi Minh City Flood Risk Management Project, using loans from the World Bank (WB).
Inside the Tham Luong - Ben Cat wastewater treatment plant, October 2017. Photo: Ha Giang
The project has calculated to build common sewer lines (rainwater, wastewater), along with 6 separation wells to bring water to the Tham Luong - Ben Cat factory for treatment. The sewer lines are more than 46 km long, built in Go Vap district and Ward 13, Binh Thanh district... However, due to differences in compensation and site clearance policies, in 2017, Ho Chi Minh City and the World Bank stopped the above project. This led to the unfinished implementation plan of the works, including the wastewater collection system for the factory.
To solve the problem, Ho Chi Minh City is planning to invest in a project to improve the drainage, wastewater and climate change adaptation systems in the Tham Luong - Ben Cat basin (CRUS1). The project has a total investment of nearly VND8,200 billion, using funding from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and domestic counterpart funds.
According to the scale of the project, in addition to the two tide-prevention sluices of Vam Thuat and Nuoc Len canals that will be built, the project will invest in more than 80 km of main sewer system, connecting to highly urbanized areas in the area. Wastewater in the main sewer line will then be separated and led to the Tham Luong - Ben Cat factory through a smaller sewer system that will be built. The project will also build many other items such as regulating lakes, drainage culverts along the road, etc.
Last October, in a submission to the Prime Minister requesting investment approval, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee proposed the project's implementation period from now until 2028. When completed, the project will contribute to flood prevention and drainage for a basin of nearly 4,500 hectares in Go Vap, Binh Thanh, 12 and Binh Tan districts. In addition to meeting the capacity of 131,000 m3 per day in phase one of the Tham Luong - Ben Cat plant, the sewer system will also ensure operation for phase two, when it is increased to 250,000 m3.
A section of Tham Luong - Ben Cat canal in mid-February. Photo: Thanh Tung
Previously, Ho Chi Minh City spent tens of thousands of billions of VND to invest in and renovate canals such as Nhieu Loc - Thi Nghe, Tan Hoa - Lo Gom, Tau Hu - Ben Nghe... However, water in many canals is still polluted because treatment plants have not been invested in synchronously.
Currently, in addition to the Tham Luong - Ben Cat plant, the city has two other plants in operation, including Binh Hung (capacity of 141,000 m3) and Binh Hung Hoa (30,000 m3), along with a number of small stations in Thu Duc City and Binh Chanh. As for the Binh Hung plant, the city is preparing to operate the second phase with a capacity increased to 469,000 m3 per day.
Meanwhile, the largest project is the Nhieu Loc - Thi Nghe wastewater treatment plant with a capacity of 480,000 m3 per day, part of the Ho Chi Minh City Environmental Sanitation Project (Phase 2) implemented nearly 10 years ago, but is behind schedule due to many obstacles. According to the plan, this plant will operate in 2026, helping to treat wastewater from residents along the Nhieu Loc - Thi Nghe canal, stretching through districts 1, 3, Binh Thanh, Phu Nhuan, Tan Binh, instead of currently being discharged into the Saigon River, causing pollution.
In addition to the above projects, Ho Chi Minh City is implementing a project to renovate and build the infrastructure of the Tham Luong - Ben Cat - Nuoc Len canal, with a total length of nearly 32 km. This project is expected to be completed in 2025, but according to the Urban Infrastructure Construction Investment Project Management Board, at that time the canal water will still "not be clear" because it has to wait for the CRUS1 project to be implemented, so that wastewater will no longer be discharged directly into the canal.
Gia Minh
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