A regional safe water supply project with total investment of about 1.7 billion USD will be launched in the Mekong Delta, said a representative from the Technical Infrastructure Agency of the Ministry of Construction.

The information was revealed during a workshop on planning for the project, or technical assistance pre-project, in Can Tho city held by the Ministry of Construction on October 26.

The pre-project was supported by the World Bank (WB) at a cost of 440 million USD. Of the sum, 400 million USD is from the WB’s loan while the rest comes from Vietnam.

The pre-project includes building water plants with a capacity up to 300,000 cubic metres daily, pipelines and transformer stations, among others.

The project is expected to benefit about 9.4 million people in seven localities in the southwest of Hau river: Can Tho, Hau Giang, Soc Trang, Bac Lieu, Ca Mau, Kien Giang and An Giang.

Processed water from Hau river will be transferred to seven water supply plants through the pipeline network.

To date, the WB has provided seven million USD for a feasibility study for the project. It will be submitted for approval of the Government and WB assessment in January 2019.

VNA