VietNamNet Bridge – Song Hong Joint Stock Corporation yesterday, March 8, began work on a VND503 billion (US$25 million) scheme to improve drainage – and the environment – in channels opening into the To Lich, Hoang Liet, Lu and Set rivers skirting the capital.

The work includes dredging and cleaning the channel beds, creating embankments and setting up an underground drainage system, building roads above 15 channels in Ba Dinh, Tay Ho, Dong Da, Hoang Mai, Thanh Xuan, Hai Ba Trung and Thanh Tri districts.

The work will include avenues of trees and public lighting.

This is the third of 13 construction packages in the second drainage project to improve the environment for 2006-2013. Total cost of all the works is $370 million.

A Japanese development assistance loan made up 76 per cent of this and the Vietnamese Government will pay the remainder.

Pham Van Cuong, director of the project, said that construction was expected to completed in the next two years. He said it would not only improve the drainage and environment of river basins, but also help reduce traffic congestion in the area.

The four rivers with their channel network have been highly polluted for years, creating visual pollution and strong smells. Despite the fact that they play an important part in city drainage, their banks have been littered with trash.

A report by the city Environment and Natural Resources Department last year found that Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5 – the amount of dissolved oxygen consumed in five days by bacteria that perform biological degradation of organic matter) in the To Lich River was 7.13 times above the accepted level, 2.84 times above in the Set River and 5.28 times above in the Lu River.

It said that pollution levels were expected to double within less than 10 years if no steps were taken to solve the problem.

The project covers a large area of land and involves land clearance and resettlement for some residents, said Song Hong director Dang Tien Phong at the ground breaking ceremony.

Toshio Nagase, a representative from Japan International Co-operation Agency in Viet Nam, said the project was one of biggest and most important in the second environment improvement scheme that Japan had approved.

Since 1994, the agency and Ha Noi People's Committee have been working on an environmental master plan involving the city's lakes and rivers, which are all severely polluted because of uncontrolled urbanisation and industrialisation.

The first drainage project was carried out from 1995 to 2005. Under it, Japan supported a clean-up of the city's rivers and lakes and constructed Yen So Pumping Station to minimise flooding in the city. It could pump at a rate of 45 cubic metres per second.

The second project, to double the capacity of Yen So Pumping Station to 90 cubic metre per second, began in November 2008 and finished last September.

Ha Noi Construction Department deputy director Le Van Duc urged relevant sectors to make efforts to finish the work by April, 2013.

Up to now, eight out of 13 construction packages included in the second project have been carried out.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News