HCM City plans waste treatment as priority sector
The HCM City government plans to spend more money and energy developing infrastructure for some waste treatment complexes in suburban areas to attract foreign environment companies.
Nguyen Van Phuoc, deputy director of the HCM City Service of Natural Resources and Environment, told the Daily that the city approved the master zoning plan for the North-West Waste Treatment Complex covering 822 hectares in Phuoc Hiep Ward in the outlying district of Cu Chi early this year.
Based on the master plan, the service plans to start building infrastructure for the complex in July by 2007. The infrastructure development, which will be funded by the city budget, is scheduled to complete within 7-8 months.
“The city wants to develop good infrastructure for investors, including internal roads, bridges, water and electricity. Good infrastructure helps not only the city government attract more international investors but also investors carry out their projects on schedule,” Phuoc said.
Figures show 6,000-6,500 tonnes of solid waste is discharged a day in the city and all of the waste is dumped at Go Cat and Da Phuoc dumpsites in the outlying district of Binh Chanh.
However, with fast urbanisation in the city, developing waste treatment plants with new technology has become urgent, Phuoc said, adding the service also planned two other complexes -one covering 1,760 hectares in the neighbouring province of Long An and the other covering 256 hectares in Da Phuoc Ward in Binh Chanh District.
Last month, the city government allowed the Viet-Italy Environment Joint Stock Co to build a plant to turn solid waste into micro-organic fertiliser. The facility will be located inside the waste treatment complex in Cu Chi.
Besides Viet-Italy, Lemna International Inc. of the US and Saigon Earth care have been separately licensed to invest in this complex.
The US$36 million garbage recycling plant of Lemna with its state-of-the-art technologies will be capable of treating 1,200 tonnes of waste a day when in place. But in its first phase, which is scheduled to be inaugurated in September, the plant will handle 600 tonnes of waste a day. More 65% of the waste will be processed into organic fertiliser and the remainder will be either recycled into plastic or dumped.
An official of Saigon Earth care said his plant would start operation in July with the capacity in the first phase of 500 tonnes a day and 1,000 tonnes later.
Taiwan’s Yung-I, which has received a license to develop a noxious waste treatment plant able to recycle 9-10 tonnes a day, is waiting for space in Cu Chi’s complex.
Some projects are being considered for approval to build garbage treatment facilities inside Cu Chi’s complex, including those of
Australia’s Fluid Tech, Singapore’s Keppel, Canada’s Naanovo, Entropic Energy of the US, and HCM City-based Citenco and Nam Thanh.
The city has agreed to pay US$5 a tonne of waste processed by investors.
Last July California Waste Solutions broke ground for a bridge to the Da Phuoc Integrated Solid Waste Management Facility covering 128 hectares in HCM City’s Binh Chanh District. The total project cost is more than US$400 million, including US$107 million in the initial period. Da Phuoc is due to take garbage by late 2006.
Category: Business
