HÀ NỘI — Construction of the wastewater system in Hà Nội’s Thanh Trì District, the largest of its kind in Việt Nam, kicked off today.

The project, with a capacity of 270,000cu.m. of water per day, will collect wastewater from 4,870ha in seven districts - Ba Đình, Từ Liêm, Đống Đa and Thanh Xuân, as well as Hoàng Mai, Hà Đông and Thanh Trì.

The project is expected to clean badly polluted rivers, such as Tô Lịch, Lừ, Sét and part of Nhuệ.

Nguyễn Đức Chung, chairman of the city’s People’s Committee, said "the pollution of rivers is an urgent issue which needs to be addressed".

Currently, the city’s wastewater is being collected by a drainage system and discharged into four rivers.

The construction of a treatment system is, therefore, necessary. The quality of water will be much improved once the project is completed.

Chung asked relevant authorities to focus on construction of the project so that operations could begin in 2019. The project is being funded by investment capital from Japanese government’s ODA.

According to Lê Văn Dục, director of the city’s Department of Construction, the project consists of four packages. The first package, with capacity of 270,000cu.m. of water per day, will be built by the Yên Xá Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The remaining packages consist of the construction of a drainage system along Lịch, Lừ and Nhuệ rivers, with total length of 52.61km and diameter between 400 and 2,400m.

At the groundbreaking ceremony, Kunji Akinaga, head of Japan’s consultancy team, committed that his team would strive to ensure the safety and completion of the project.

Lake water to be tightly controlled

The city will enhance environment protection of rivers and lakes, Ha Noi’s Party Central Committee Secretary Hoàng Trung Hải said.

“The waste water being discharged into the rivers and lakes must be tightly controlled, especially following the mass fish deaths in the West Lake this week,” Hải added.

So far, the cause of the fish deaths in the West Lake has not yet been identified, but the city has pushed relevant agencies to continue the investigation to determine the proper measures to address the issue.

“The situation was a result of the poor management of authorised agencies,” Hải said.

The city needs to install a water monitoring system in the West Lake, in particular, and other rivers and lakes, in general.

In the near future, the city plans to increase the capacity of waste water treatment facilities, to 50 per cent from the current 22 per cent to the total sewage discharge.

The city has executed several projects, including water purification in 17 lakes, installing a wastewater treatment system in Tô Lich River, Yên Nghĩa Pumping Station and urban anti-flooding.

Earlier this week, mass fish deaths occurred in Hồ Tây (West Lake). The quantity of dead fish reached hundreds of tonnes. — VNS