A US$20 billion (US$1.14 million) waste treatment plant, the biggest of its kind in the Mekong Delta, is in a testing phase ahead of being put into operation next month, a key investor said Tuesday.

A seminar on strategies to recover Vietnam’s polluted land areas was organised by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, in coordination with Germany’s Environment Ministry, in Hanoi on March 10.

Outlying districts of Ha Noi are becoming a massive rubbish dump as communes and wards fail to collect and transport litter, according to the municipal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Viet Nam is still faced with inadequate waste water management, a source of numerous avoidable diseases, said Minister of Construction Nguyen Hong Quan.