At a meeting last week, the HCM City People’s Committee said that it would ask the Bank to extend the project for another two years, ending in 2009.

The city authority has asked the contractors to speed up the works to increase the present monthly average disbursement rate of $1.5 million to $4.5 million.

Together with four other canals through the city, the 9km-long Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe canal carries discharged water and rain water to the Sai Gon River.

The hydraulic Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe canal basin has been plagued with flooding and highly polluted water because of increased economic development and high population growth in the last 20 years.

In the late 1990s, the canal was identified by the city government as one in need of improvement and given the highest priority.

In 2001, the World Bank approved the Nhieu Loc-Thi Nghe Environmental Sanitation Project worth $200 million, which includes an interest-free $166 million loan for 40 years from the bank.

Under the six-year project, a new underground sewer has been built underneath the canals with mechanical screens to remove solids and sludge at a pumping station which will discharge the wastewater to the Sai Gon River.

Drainage works to replace and extend combined sewers to reduce overflows of stormwater and wastewater are also ongoing.

Since the beginning of this year, traffic jams on the road have occurred because of the canal drainage project, while street flooding after heavy downpours is still common. — VNS

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