Alarming situation in urban areas

Alarming situation in urban areas

Vietnamese urban areas completely lack planning in development, environment and immigration.

This was the conclusion of World Bank experts after a recent survey of Vietnamese urban areas. Infrastructure planning is poor, with average housing space at only 10 sq. metres/person, one third that of advanced cities in the world. The percentage of land dedicated for communication networks is also too small. Water supplies are 30-40 per cent depleted. Only 70 per cent of urban waste is collected and treated. Pollution is serious in water, air, environment and noise.

The survey also shows that the poverty rate is 9.5 per cent in urban areas (as at 2000) and is coupled with poor infrastructure and a shortage of basic services. Rapid urbanisation has caused immigration to the cities and rural poverty has shifted to urban areas. Absence of infrastructure planning has directly affected the living conditions of the poor. The immigration rate from rural to urban areas in 1999 was 18 million, making up 23.6 per cent of the population in urban areas. In 2002, it was over 20 million or 25.1 per cent, and is projected be 35 per cent by 2010 and 45 per cent by 2020.

Urban planning needed

Mr. Nguyen Hong Quan, Minister of Construction said that the fast pace of urbanisation has created an emergency situation in urban poverty and uncontrolled immigration. Mr. Nguyen Hoang Nhan, Director of the Project Management Board of Ho Chi Minh City, believed that there will be more problems to come in urban development. Major construction projects will be confronted with compensation and resettlement, difficulties in the implementation of technical projects, disbursement and auditing, and bidding and co-ordination with relevant ministries and agencies.

The Project Management Board pointed out that Vietnam is lacking an orientation and master plan for urban development till 2020, including water supply and drainage, waste treatment, communications, sustainable development, and attention to socio-economic development in key economic zones in North, Central and South Vietnam. Furthermore, according to WB, due to the resultant lack of specific projects, donors do not have opportunities to provide assistance.

Urban Upgrade Project

On September 13 2004, the World Bank and Vietnamese provinces and cities started an urban upgrade project with a “criteria framework” providing mechanisms, investment plans and implementation methods so that investors can co-ordinate their investments and successfully upgrade urban areas. According to the project, in the next five years, 5,348 households from four major cities (Haiphong, Nam Dinh, Can Tho, Ho Chi Minh) will be resettled over an area of 60 hectares.

Infrastructure in low-income areas in these cities will be upgraded with attention to roads, water supply and drainage, power supply, dispensaries, schools and markets. It will be financed by preferential credit of over US$222 million.

The government has made its own investment and empowered local authorities to implement the project. For their part, the population have actively participated in the project, paying for power lines and water-pipes and operating the infrastructure and services. The project will be completed by 2009.                                                  

• Quynh Chi