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

Quan said that the Vietnamese Government had been issuing lots of regulations and decrees to solve the problem of untreated waste in the country; however, the implementation of these regulations had "faced difficulties".

Karin Kortmann, Parliamentarian State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development, said that Viet Nam’s ambitious plan to provide all larger cities with waste water systems and all industrial zones with their own treatment facilities would be a challenge.

She said: "Viet Nam still has a long way to reach its target."

The World Bank estimated that the nation’s economic losses were caused by inadequate waste management, accounting for 1.3 per cent of its income.

Kortmann asked Viet Nam to continue its course of reform and use its legislation to solve the problem, for which Germany was eager to help.

The forum would bring together decision makers from relevant ministries in Viet Nam and their affiliated agencies, as well as international experts who could share their experiences in the sector.

Ngo Hong Quang, director of the Ministry of Construction’s Administration of Technical Infrastructure, said the current rate of urbanisation in Viet Nam was more than 30 per cent, and would be 45 per cent by 2020, with about 45 million urban residents.

The director said that every day the total amount of urban waste water discharged was 500,000cu.m, of which 100,000cu.m was from industries, hospitals and other services. Most households were equipped with septic tanks which received black waste water from toilets.

He said that there was only a small section of industries and hospitals that had on-site waste water treatment systems, and only 8-10 per cent of the total amount of urban waste water was treated in the four newly built treatment plants with total capacities of 48,000cu.m per day. Data from the main rivers and lakes in Ha Noi had clearly shown that the water quality of rivers, lakes and ponds in the city was worsening. "At present, Viet Nam has 110 industrial zones in operation, and less than one third of them have adequate treatment systems for waste water or other toxic substances," Quang added.

Quang said the drainage service coverage was only 60 per cent, while most waste water was not treated before being discharged to the receivers, resulting in severe pollution of both surface and ground water.

Quang said that though pollution influenced the lives of people, they seemed not to be aware of the link between clean water, sanitation and their health, and as such were not eager to pay their waste fees.

Dietmar Wenz, priority Area Co-ordinator from the KfW Entwicklungsbank, agreed with other participants that the polluters must pay a fee not exceeding 5 per cent of their income.

Karin Kortmann said that one of Germany’s largest rivers, the Rhine in her home city of Dusseldorf, was considered chemically contaminated and biologically dead 20 years ago, but now salmon have even returned to the river.

Viet Nam News