“Japan has been providing full support to Vietnam in terms of both infrastructure and technical cooperation to develop the public sewerage and waste water treatment sector,” said JICA Senior Representative Mr Toshio Nagase at the International Conference and Exhibition on “Sewerage and Wastewater Treatment in Southeast Asia – Toward Sustainable Development” that was kicked off October 12 in Vung Tau City.
Mr Toshio Nagase is among 200 delegates and speakers from many countries such as Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Finland, Germany, the United Kingdom, China and Vietnam participating in the conference. In addition to the JICA representative, Japanese experts from the Ministries of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and from local governments have also been invited to the event to share their knowledge and experience in the field.
The participants share the view that, though given high priority by governments and international donors, the sewerage and wastewater treatment sector in South East Asia countries still faces various challenges and difficulties such as shortage in investment capital, poor performance of service providers, limited knowledge and awareness of the communities and impacts from global climate change.
In Vietnam, the government has been paying a lot of attention to improvement of sewerage and wastewater treatment in response to the needs of urban development. Japan is one of the major donors supporting Vietnam to develop public wastewater treatment plants in urban areas and improve its sanitation.
“As the results of ODA projects funded by Japanese government through JICA, many wastewater treatment plants have been constructed in metropolitan areas like Hanoi, Hai Phong, Ho Chi Minh and Da Nang. Moreover, by dispatching experts and organizing training, Japan is helping Vietnam to build an institutional foundation and human resources to meet infrastructure development requirements in the sewerage and wastewater treatment sector,” said Mr Toshio Nagase.
At the conference, experts, decision makers and service providers as well as donors in the sewerage and wastewater treatment sector were engaged in different discussion topics, such as sewerage and wastewater treatment-from asset management to service delivery; sustainable financing; technology options; operation and maintenance of sewerage and wastewater treatment systems and capacity building for the sector.
“This conference will contribute to the joint effort made by the local and central government, wastewater treatment operators, non-government organizations and donors in improving the sewerage and wastewater treatment sector in SEA countries,” said Mr Noupheuak Virabouth, SEAWUN’s President.
As a side-event, an exhibition was held for 2 days and international and local consulting companies and technology suppliers had a great opportunity to display and promote their services, products and technologies for the wastewater and sanitation sector.
Thien Di
Vietnamese
