Hitachi works on expanded sewage treatment facility

The ground-breaking ceremony to this expansion project was held at the Binh Hung Sewage Treatment Plant in Ho Chi Minh City on February 7. The order was awarded to a three-company consortium represented by POSCO Engineering & Construction, a major South Korean construction company, and comprising OTV, a subsidiary of the major French environmental services group Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies, and Hitachi. This project worth around $130 million in total will be funded by loan assistance from the Japanese government.

As the largest city in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City has seen its volume of industrial and domestic wastewater surge in step with rapid industrialisation and urbanisation. Concerns that this surge could worsen the water quality of rivers and affect the sanitation and health of the residents are mounting, due to the inadequate development of sewage treatment facilities.

This project aims to improve Ho Chi Minh City’s urban and domestic sanitation by expanding the daily processing capacity of the existing sewage treatment facilities from 141,000 to 469,000 cubic metres. The expanded capacity would be sufficient to meet the wastewater treatment needs of approximately 1.4 million people, and would make the plant one of the largest sewage treatment facilities in Southeast Asia.

Plans are currently under way for future sewage infrastructure development projects in Vietnam, and Hitachi will continue its participation in this business in the future. Hitachi aims to contribute to Vietnam’s development by putting in place water infrastructure and maintaining and improving Vietnam’s water environment.

Kunizo Sakai, president and CEO of Hitachi’s Infrastructure Systems Company said, “Hitachi is honored to be involved in the expansion work project to a large-scale sewage treatment facility in Ho Chi Minh City in collaboration with POSCO E&C and Veolia. Hitachi has an extensive track record and expertise in the delivery of water treatment plants throughout the world, and we look forward to contributing to the maintenance and improvement of the water environment in Vietnam by putting in place reliable water infrastructures.”

The expansion project in Ho Chi Minh City is the second large-scale project awarded to Hitachi and OTV, following orders received in 2014 for a 199,000 cubic metres per day desalination plant and pre-treatment facilities in Basrah, Iraq, the largest of its kind in the country.