VietNamNet Bridge – HCM City authorities hope that the city’s VND800 billion water supply project willhelp reduce the volume of water lost in transmission and lower the selling price of water.

Sawaco, the city’s water supply company, generates 1.75 million cubic meters of water eachday.According to a report, however, 35 percent of that, or 700,000 cubic meters, are lost in transmission. The water supplier has exerted itself over the last several years to reduce the lost volumes, but its efforts have been mostly fruitless.

CII, an infrastructure development company, and HFIC, a financial investment company, are reportedly negotiating with Sawaco on a project to reduce the water loss.

If the involved parties can reach an agreement on the project, this would be the first project in the field to be implemented under the socialization mode.

Under the plan submitted by CII-HFIC, the two would spend VND800 billion on works to help reduce the water loss in three areas: Zone 4 (Districts 2,9 and Thu Duc), Zone 5 (Districts 4, 7, and Nha Be), and Zone 6 (Districts 6, 8, Binh Tan and Binh Chanh).  

It is expected that the project would be completed within 15 years. After the first five years of its implementation, the total water volume saved is expected to be 70,000 cubic meters per day. From the first to fifth years of the project, the volume of water reclaimed would progressively increase, depending on the zones’ conditions.

According to Le Quoc Binh, CII General Director,CII-HFIC would charge VND4,000 for every cubic meter of clean water to collected back. Binh believes that the fee is reasonable, noting that Sawaco is selling clean water for VND9,000 per cubic meter.

However, Binh also said that VND4,000 per cubic meter is the price Sawaco would have to pay to CII-HFIC right in the first year of the project, while the price would increase in accordance with Sawaco’s water price increases.

Prior to that, Sawaco announced that it would follow a roadmap in raising water prices, and that the water price may increase by 10 percent annually.

Sawaco has been urged by HCM City dwellers to approve the plan suggested by CII-HFIC. The loss of 700,000 cubic meters of water everyday not only wastesmoney and resources, but also creates a hazard, because the water soaking into the earth may lead to landslides.

Tran Dinh Phu, Sawaco’s General Director, noted that the proposedproject is unprecedented. To date, projects on reducing water loss have been funded mostly by foreign investors.

However, Phu said Sawaco applauds the CII-HFIC-initiated project, because they are financially and technologically capable investors, while limited financial capability is the biggest problem for Sawaco.

Le Trong Hieu, Director of Cho Lon Water Supply JSC, said he advocates the conceptof the project, but CII-HFIC needs to prove that they can actually help reduce more lost water than the other water supply companies.

NLD