Germany assists Lang Son in waste management

(LSO) – Vice Chairman of Lang Son People’s Committee Ho Tien Thieu chaired a working session on October 1 with a delegation from the German development bank KfW, who came to inspect the progress of a KfW-funded project on upgrading wastewater and solid waste management systems in Vietnam’s northern provinces. The delegation was led by director of the project Dominique Bluemer.

According to Lang Son Water Supply and Sewage JSC – the investor of the project, the construction of a system for water sewage and wastewater treatment in Lang Son city began in November 2015 and was divided into six package deals.

Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Ho Tien Thieu speaks at the working session.

The project receives total investment of more than 24.3 million EUR, or over 700 billion VND, of which over 529.9 billion VND is sourced from the KfW’s loan. As of 2019, the project has so far disbursed about 359 billion VND of more than 440 billion VND earmarked for the period.

To date, five package deals have been completed, while the remaining deal is in the stage of negotiations for the building of a wastewater treatment plant and six pumping stations.

In response to the German delegation’s queries, Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Ho Tien Thieu said the province has instructed the investor to quickly handle problems found in the main water sewage system to ensure the quality as designed. The task is set to be completed within October.

He noted that local authorities are working toward the goal of starting the building of the wastewater treatment plant and pumping stations in November.

Concerning an additional provision of about 500,000 EUR for consultation services, Thieu said Lang Son has sent a report to the Ministry of Planning and Investment asking for measures to handle the sum.

He requested that the sponsor quickly process procedures when receiving documents from the investor in order to facilitate capital disbursement as the loan agreement is nearing the date of ending. He also asked the sponsor to support Lang Son’s plan to handle the additional funding.