Speaking on September 10, Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction, Le Ngoc Linh, said that, to urgently implement the city’s plan for urban wastewater collection and treatment through 2030, the department had asked relevant departments, agencies, units and the people’s committees of wards, communes and special zones to proactively carry out their assigned tasks, with a focus on removing bottlenecks in investment and completing wastewater collection and treatment systems.
The Department of Construction emphasized the need to prioritize tasks and projects capable of delivering results quickly, particularly in areas where wastewater treatment plants are already in operation but their capacity has yet to be fully utilized. Such efforts would directly contribute to increasing the city’s wastewater collection and treatment rates.
Accordingly, the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Traffic and Technical Infrastructure Management has been asked to urgently take the lead, in coordination with relevant agencies and localities, in conducting a comprehensive review of existing centralized and decentralized wastewater collection and treatment systems and plants. The review must clearly identify their designed capacity, actual operating capacity, incoming wastewater volumes, collection coverage, intake capacity, and bottlenecks limiting the utilization of existing capacity.
Based on the review, the center is to propose solutions including additional collection routes, connection points and transfer pipelines, adjustments to operating plans, and other necessary technical measures to maximize the capacity of existing facilities.
The Ho Chi Minh City Center for Traffic and Technical Infrastructure Management will also coordinate with the People’s Committees of wards, communes, and special zones to review roads and existing residential areas that lack wastewater collection systems or do not have adequate connection capacity. Areas that can be immediately connected to existing wastewater collection systems and treatment plants will be prioritized, with their potential contribution to increasing wastewater collection and treatment rates in 2026 quantified.
The Department of Construction has requested that agencies and units submit their review results and implementation plans by September 20, 2026. The Ho Chi Minh City Center for Traffic and Technical Infrastructure Management, in particular, must urgently complete its report for the department to consolidate and advise the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee on issuing a plan to achieve the 2026 targets.
Under the targets set, by the end of 2026, Ho Chi Minh City’s urban wastewater collection rate must reach at least 50 percent, while the proportion of urban wastewater treated to meet regulatory standards must exceed 25 percent. These targets will also provide a basis for the city to establish its roadmap and key tasks for subsequent years, with a view to achieving its 2030 goal for urban wastewater collection and treatment.
