JICA and the Government of Finland JOINT PRESS RELEASE

Japan and Finland Partners with Hai Phong City to Enhance the Effectiveness of Sewerage Systems throughout Viet Nam

Hai Phong – December 11th 2008: In an effort to enhance the effectiveness of current and future sewerage systems throughout Viet Nam, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Government of Finland partnered with Hai Phong City in holding the “Capitalizing the Hai Phong-Finland Model for Promoting Household Sewerage Connections” Workshop morning of today, 11 December 2008 in Hai Phong City .

The miraculous economic development along with rapid urbanization in Vietnam has brought many people out of poverty but, at the same time, raised many urban environmental concerns, especially to the water systems. Domestic, industrial and hospital wastewater flows almost completely untreated into the canals, rivers and lakes that are vital to the livelihood of residents.

Many development partners including Finland and Japan have taken initiatives to solve the problem of degrading water quality since the 1990s. These initiatives, especially the development of public sewerage systems with wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are coming into realization in most of the major cities in the next 5 years, including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Vinh Yen (Vinh Phuc), Thu Dau Mot (Binh Duong) and Hue City.

There is no doubt that these public sewerage systems with WWTPs will contribute to the water quality improvement; however, in order to maximize their effectiveness and sustainability, it is critical that each households and commercial establishments connect to the sewerage system. In many cities, the current connection rates are as low as 20% because many of the households lack financial capacity to invest in connections. It is well known in Vietnam that Hai Phong City, with the assistance of the Government of Finland, has succeeded in promoting this by establishing a financing mechanism, a revolving fund, for the households.

With presence of the representatives of People’s Committees and Women’s Unions of Hai Phong City, Binh Duong Province, Vinh Phuc Province, Dong Nai Province and Thua Thien Hue Province, the workshop shared the experiences and lessons learnt of the Hai Phong City so that such program can be implemented successfully in other cities and provinces.

JICA and the Government of Finland JOINT PRESS RELEASE

According to Dr. Nguyen Van Thanh, the First Vice Chairman of the Hai Phong People's Committee: “The workshop paved the way in finding out the optimal solutions to increase investment effectiveness of sewerage systems, and to help low-income people to access sanitation facilities created by environmental investments”.

For further information, please contact: JICA Vietnam Office 16 Flr., 360 Kim Ma St., Ba Dinh, Hanoi, Vietnam Tel: 84-4-3831 5005~8 Mr. Taro Katsurai, Senior Project Formulation Advisor