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More money requested to clean up toxic canal

Date: 8/7/2009 2:18:09 PM

Ho Chi Minh City agency has asked the municipal administration to grant an additional VND437 billion (USD24.5 million) to a project to clean up a polluted canal that floods neighborhoods with untreated wastewater.

Work underway to clean up the heavily polluted Ba Bo Canal between Ho Chi Minh City and neighboring Binh Duong Province.

The project to dredge a 1.9-kilometer section of the Ba Bo Canal between the city and Binh Duong Province started in October last year but little work has been completed due to site clearance problems.

According to Nguyen Ngoc Cong, deputy director of the HCMC Steering Center for Anti-flooding Programs under the municipal People’s Committee, the center had asked to the committee to increase the project investment from VND307 billion (USD 17.23 million) to VND744 billion (USD 41.76 million).

The proposal was announced Wednesday in a working session with the Economy and Budget Committee under the HCMC People’s Council, the legislature. He said the increase was needed as the project lacked money to compensate residents for site clearance, adding that the additional money would also be used to improve wastewater treatment facilities. Cong said the city administration had not ratified the proposal but it had approved it in principle.

No plans

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Duc, head of the Binh Chieu Ward’s administration in HCMC’s Thu Duc District, home to part of the canal, said the major cause of the delay was the lack of funds to compensate displaced residents. He said many households had rejected current compensation rates and have refused to relocate.

The municipal administration recently instructed relevant authorities to complete site clearance this month but only about a third of the task had been completed so far.

Huynh Cong Hung, deputy head of the Economy and Budget Committee, admitted that compensation and site clearance were delayed as there were no plans as to exactly how the displaced residents would be relocated yet. But Hung pledged that by 2010- 2011, pollution on the canal would be “absolutely improved.”

Officials at the meeting said the city and the province were working together to better control wastewater poured from local industrial zones into the canal.

Still miserable

According to the city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment, pollution in the canal has showed signs of lessening since the project was launched, but recent tests showed that the content of contaminants was still 1.7- 9.3 times the legal limit.

The canal has made life miserable for thousands of households living nearby as it often floods their streets and homes with toxic water. A report said the canal receives about 8,600 cubic meters of wastewater from industrial zones daily.

According to statistics by the city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment, among the 78 businesses that drain wastewater into the canal, 14 don’t treat their wastewater at all before dumping it.

At the meeting, residents said pollution in the canal had yet to improve and that severe flooding was still common during heavy rains.

The project, planned in 2003, aimed to improve the flooding situation in a 1,560-hectare zone while treating wastewater from residents and local industrial zones. The building of a reservoir to regulate flood water and the planting more trees were also included in the project, but the reservoir project has been put on hold and the trees have yet to be planted. In May, the city agreed to add VND55 billion (USD 3.09 million) to the project, increasing its budget to VND307 billion (USD 17.25 million).

(Source:Thanh Nien News)

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