Water Environment Partnership in Asia

Policy Brief

Series5

March 2014

URBAN DOMESTIC WASTEWATERM A N AG E M E N T I N V I E T N A M- CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

1. Introduction
Vietnam is going through a crucial period ofurbanisation and the Government of Vietnam
has placed strong emphasis on sustainableurban development. As of September 2013,
Vietnam had 765 urban areas classified into
six categories, one of which is comprised oftwo special urban areas (Hanoi and Ho Chi
Minh City), the remaining being categories
I, II, II, IV and V. The number of urban areas
is expected to rise to 1,000 by 2025 with a
total estimated urban population of 52 million(Tien, 2013). The urban classification system,
established in 2001 and updated in 2009 with
the inception of Decree No. 42/2009/ND-CP,
serves as an important tool in urban policy
and management in Vietnam. The grading ofurban areas depends on the level of economic
activity, physical development, population,
population density and infrastructure
provision. The Government of Vietnam
has been focusing on developing technicalinfrastructure systems, particularly in relation
to water supply, drainage and seweragesystems, as well as urban wastewater
treatment both to meet the growing needs ofthe population and achieve its sustainableurban development target as well as thesector’s targets as set in the “Orientations forsewerage and drainage development in urban
centers and industrial zones up to 2025 and avision for 2050”. Along with economic growthand urbanisation, urban population is growing
constantly. In 2013, Vietnam’s total population
was about 90 million people, of which urban
population accounted for approximately
32.9%. According to the Vietnam Populationand Housing Census 2009, on average, theannual urban population growth rate was 3.4%
in the period from 1999-2009. This has led tohuge pressures on the urban environment,
particularly on infrastructure systems such as
sewerage and drainage systems, which are

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outdated and cannot keep up with the pace ofgrowth.
In Vietnam, most of the urban areas in
category IV or higher have combined
sewerage and drainage systems, whichcollect both rainwater and wastewater via
pipeline collection networks or drainage
canals. According to the water sector review
report (ADB, 2009), the average drainage
coverage in Vietnam is about 40–50 %, which
is much lower than water supply service ofover 70 %. The coverage rate ranges from
70% in large urban areas to only 10–20% in
category IV. However, most of the domestic
wastewater in urban areas is not centrally
treated but only treated by household’s
septic tank and discharged directly into theenvironment, such as rivers, lakes, streams.
Only a few big cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh
City, Da Nang, Quang Ninh, Da Lat andBuon Ma Thuat have centralised wastewater
treatment plants.
Similarly to the wastewater situation, septage,
which is often defined as “liquid and solidmaterial pumped from a septic tank, cesspoolor other primary treatment source” (Tilley,2008), has not been treated properly before
being discharged into environment. In large
provinces or cities, it is often collected by
the province or city-owned companies or
private companies based on requests fromhouseholds. In theory, this sludge should betransported to landfills or septage treatment
facilities for final disposal, but in reality isoften illegally dumped into vacant land, canals
or ponds or even discharged directly into therivers and ponds near sludge emptying points.
In recent years, thanks to the government’s
appropriate attention, as well as financial andtechnical supports from international donor
agencies such as the Japan International

Cooperation Agency (JICA), the World Bank
(WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB),
management of urban wastewater in Vietnam
has been improved significantly. However,
if compared to many other countries in theregion, the proportion of urban wastewater
treated in Vietnam is still relatively low, which
has led to serious pollution of lakes andrivers. The World Bank’s estimate for the total
economic damage caused by poor sanitationin Vietnam is 780 million USD per year
(based on 2005 prices), equivalent to 1.3% ofgross domestic product (GDP) (WSP, 2008).

This policy brief aims to review the current
status of urban wastewater and septage
management in Vietnam to identify
major challenges and barriers, as well asfactors that play a key role in improving
and enhancing the performance of thewastewater sector. Based on this information,
appropriate policies will be recommended
to assist policymakers in making decisions
toward improving the current status of urban
wastewater and septage management in
Vietnam.

2. Urban sanitation development in
Vietnamthe proportion of urban population has
increased dramatically over recent years.

a. Demographic, socio-economic andenvironmental conditions

The process of rapid urbanization andpopulation growth has created huge pressures
on infrastructure systems which were built
decades ago, especially urban drainage andsewerage systems. Results of water quality
monitoring of major canals, lakes and rivers
in Vietnam showed that concentrations oforganic pollutants are 1.5 to 3 times, oreven 10-20 times higher than the permitted
standard in some areas (VEA, 2010) (Fig.
1). This situation has existed for many years,
and has led to serious consequences for local
populations and their immediate environment.

Vietnam has achieved noteworthy progressin economic development since its successfultransition from a centrally planned economyt o a m a r k e t e c o n o m y. To t a l d o m e s t i c
product (GDP) grew on average 7.5% peryear over 2000–2009. GDP per capita
increased from 700 USD in 2005 to 1,749
USD in 2012, primarily generated in urban
areas (VGP, 2013). Along with this rapid
pace of economic growth and urbanisation,

Figure 1

BOD5 loads in major selected canals, lakes and rivers in Vietnam (2005–2009)
Source: VEA, 2010

Note:
QCVN 08:2008 – National regulation on surface water quality
QCVN 08:2008 (A2)- Applied for surface water source, which is able to use for domestic supply after appropriate treatment
QCVN 08:2008 (B2)- Applied for waterway transport and other purposes with low requirements of water quality.

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b. Major challenges and constraints
in domestic wastewater and septage
management
i. Current status of urban wastewater
management
Most drainage and sewerage systems inlarge cities of Vietnam were constructed
over three decades ago and more than
90% of wastewater is conveyed by use of
combined sewer systems, primarily serving
as storm-water drainage, and “taking away”
domestic wastewater to prevent flooding inthe streets. Some newly developed urban
areas introduce separate sewer and drainage
systems; however, as most urban wastewateris untreated, thus both storm-water anddomestic wastewater are finally discharged
together into nearby water environments
such as rivers, lakes and canals. Meanwhile,service coverage of sewerage and wastewater
treatment is still rather low compared to thedrinking water supply service coverage. The
coverage of sewer networks average just 40–
50%, with 70% in large urban areas and only
1–2% in category V urban areas (JICA, 2011).
These sewerage systems are normallymanaged by province or city-owned
companies (sometimes also referred to as“state-owned companies”). According to
Nguyen Hong Tien, Director of the Technical
Infrastructure Department under the Ministryof Construction, the total capacity of 24
existing centralised wastewater treatment
plants is about 670,000 m3/day (Tien, 2013).
According to the recent estimation from World
Bank, only 10 percent of urban wastewater istreated in Vietnam (World Bank, 2013).
Domestic wastewater from households ismainly treated in household’s septic tankbefore being discharging into combined sewer
systems, then into rivers, lakes, and canals
without any further treatment, except in somebig cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh
City (Fig. 2). Nearly 90% of households inurban areas have septic tanks. The remaining
households are either equipped with othertype of onsite sanitation such as double
vault composting toilet (DVCT), pit latrines
or directly discharge their wastewater into
combined sewers without any treatment.
According to the Ministry of Construction,
before Nov. 2013 only eight urban areas in
Vietnam had centralised wastewater treatment
plants, mainly in big cities including Hanoi,
Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Quang Ninh, Da
Lat, Buon Ma Thuat, Bac Giang and Phan
Rang (Hoa and Viet-Anh, 2013). However, in
recent years a large number of decentralised
wastewater treatment plants have been
constructed in both large and medium-sized
urban areas such as Hanoi, Bac Ninh, Vinh
and Can Tho under support from the Vietnam
Government and a number of internationalorganisations.

Figure 2

Typical combined sewer and drainage system found in cities ofVietnam(2005–2009)
Source: Hoa & Viet-Anh, 2013; World Bank, 20133

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Regarding wastewater treatment technologies
at centralised treatment plants, the mostcommon technologies are based on activated
sl u d g e (AS) p r o c es s , s uc h as aerat i ontanks or sequencing batch reactors (SBR);
for example, Kim Lien & Truc Bach pilot
wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), North
Thang Long WWTP, Yen So WWTP, Bai Chay
WWTP, Quang Ninh WWTP. In addition,
there are a number of wastewater treatment
plants utilising low-cost and environmentallysound sanitation technologies, such as waste
stabilisation ponds or constructed wetlands.
Examples of these are the WWTPs in Ho Chi
Minh City (Binh Hung Hoa WWTP), Da Nangand Buon Ma Thuat.
Concerning on decentralised wastewater
treatment technologies, basically, activatedsludge based-treatment process andbiological filtration are among the mostMajor challenges and barriers related tourban wastewater management in Vietnam- On-site treatment system: On-site treatment
systems such as septic tanks play a key rolein wastewater treatment activities in Vietnam.
Septic tanks are in fact “low-rate” anaerobic
treatment units, and much evidence proves
they are often of low performance and low
efficiency, are under-maintained and cause
groundwater pollution. Their actual BOD5
removal efficiency is only about 20–30%(Anh et al., 2002). According to the authors’o b se rva ti o n , th e maj ori t y of hous ehol dseptic tanks in Vietnam are only used totreat black water, while greywater frombathrooms, kitchens, washing machines,
for example, is not treated in septic tanks.
This greywater has often been discharged
directly to canals or sewer system, especiallycommonly used. Recently, a new type of
septic tank has been introduced, namely
baffled septic tank, sometimes it has beenused in combination with waste stabilisation
pond or constructed wetland system. These
technologies have been applied in a domestic
wastewater treatment plant in Kieu Ky
commune of Hanoi, WWTP at Thanh Hoa
Pediatrics Hospital, WWTP in small towns
in Vietnam such as Minh Duc in Hai Phongcity, An Bai in Thai Binh and Cho Moi in Bac
Can. Currently, there are no exact figures
or data on the total number and capacity ofdecentralised wastewater treatment plants in
Vietnam; however, it has been estimated thatseveral thousand decentralised wastewater
treatment plants, excluding septic tanks, havebeen constructed and installed across thecountry (Viet-Anh, 2010) for the purpose oftreating domestic wastewater from residential
areas, hospitals, hotels and office buildings.

in big cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh.
The survey results showed that grey wateraccounts for nearly 88% and 70% of the
BOD load in domestic wastewater in Thailand
and Japan, respectively (WEPA-MOEJ,
2012). Most septic tanks in Vietnam are
not properly maintained and not emptied
frequently. Households only contact the urban
environment company (URENCO) or a private
enterprise (either state-owned, limited liability
or private companies) when problems suchas clogging or overflowing occur. Most septic
tanks are built underground and indoors,
making it is very difficult for desludging crews
to actually find them to access the drain hole.
Workers normally have to drill a hole throughthe floor just above the septic tank to insert asuction pipe and empty the sludge. In somecities like Hai Phong, a plastic cover will be
installed on the access hole by workers after
emptying septage (Fig. 3).

Figure 3

Worker installing plastic cover to the access hole after emptying septage in Hai Phong city
Source: Author

4Another issue is that septic tanks are usuallyconstructed in areas where a combined
drainage system was utilised, therefore actual
BOD in wastewater prior to the wastewater
treatment plant is normally much lower
compared to the BOD in a separate seweragesystem. According to a collaborative survey
between the Ministry of Construction andDeutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale
Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the average
influent BOD in water prior to wastewater
treatment plants in Vietnam is around 49
mg/l (WMP-GIZ, 2013). As a result, a low
influent BOD concentration may interfere withmicrobial decomposition in the wastewatert r e a t m e n t p l a n t s . F u r t h e r, n o t e c h n i c a l
guidance or regulations on designing,
operating and maintaining septic tanks exists.
- Wastewater collection system:
Approximately 92% of urban wastewatercollection is done via the combined system;a separate system is used for the remaining
8%. As most of the sewer systems were built
or renovated two to three decades ago, manyof them have deteriorated and do not function
properly due to poor maintenance. New
construction or renovation is often patchy
and unplanned from the outset; further, thiswork has not been carried out in sync with theconstruction of wastewater treatment plants
located along the network. Many sewage
treatment plants have not realized their full
capacity due to a lack of sewer networks.
For example, North Thang Long-Van Tri
WWTP was designed and constructed with acapacity of 42,000 m3/day but in reality theplant only operated at the capacity of 7,000
m3/day as the domestic wastewater from thesurrounding residential areas have not yet
been connected to the plant due to a reason
that the sewer networks have not been fully
covered in the area. (Survey by author, 2012).
Similar situations have been reported in Phu
Ly WWTP in Ha Nam province and a WWTP
in Vinh-Nghe An province (World Bank, 2013).

Figure 4

Direct discharge of septage into fish pondin the peri-urban area
Source: Author

55- Centralised wastewater treatment system:
Most sanitation projects tend to choose or
adopt advanced and expensive wastewater
treatment technologies, which are popularin developed countries, without considering
local conditions such as financial recovery
capacity and affordability for users. These
technologies are often known as activatedsludge treatment technologies. Of the 31
new centralised wastewater treatment
plants planned for the near future, up to 28,
or 90%, will use activated sludge-based
treatment technologies (Anh, 2013), which
may negatively impact on sustainability andviability of the sanitation projects over thelong term.

ii. Current status of septage management
Due to a lack of septage treatment facilities
in Vietnam, desludging service providers
sometimes dispose of septage on vacantland, in drains, fish farms and waterways
such as rivers, lakes, ponds and canals
close to sludge-emptying areas to save on
the transportation cost (Fig. 4). In general,
septage has not been utilised to makecompost – in fact, less than 4% of generated
septage is collected and treated properly(AECOM & SANDEC, 2010), mostly in big
cities such as Hanoi, Hai Phong, Da Nang,
Ho Chi Minh City.
Presently there are no national laws
governing the collection and treatment of
septage, and the national government has no
mandate for septage management or policy
guidance. Therefore, all desludging operatorsin urban areas are only required to obtain abusiness license before starting operations.
As a result, local governments have no
incentive to promote septage management,
invest scarce resources in operating
treatment facilities, or support such projects
once ODA project funding dries up (AECOM& SANDEC, 2010).
Most cities in Vietnam lack strict regulations,long-term strategies or a master plan for
septage management. The majority of
septage in urban areas of Vietnam is notperiodically emptied. Recently, thanks to asanitation improvement project sponsoredb y t h e Wo r l d B a n k , t h e p e r c e n t a g e o fhouseholds emptying septic tanks at least
once since construction have increased
to 59% in Hai Phong, compared to 38% in
Hanoi and 35% in Ho Chi Minh City. The
desludging frequency or interval in Hai Phong
was about 4.4 years, while in Hanoi was 6.2
years, and Ho Chi Minh was 4.4 years (World
Bank, 2013).

3. Centralised vs. Decentralised
Wastewater Management Approach
Decentralisation, in association with anappropriate local governance model, isincreasingly being recognised as a potential
means towards reducing the lack of accessto clean water or proper sanitation throughout
the world (Bieker et al., 2010; Libralato et al.,2012). Recently, decentralisation appears
to satisfy all the advantages of conventional
centralised wastewater treatment approach,with some value added mainly via theability to minimise potential residual effluent
contamination and ecosystem disruption byremoving emerging micro-pollutants such as
metals, pharmaceuticals and personal careproducts (Borsuk et al., 2008; Libralato etal., 2012). For these reasons, decentralised
wastewater treatment is increasingly
considered by sanitation planners andpolicymakers in Vietnam as the solution forsustainable sanitation, particularly for low
density peri-urban areas.
The main advantages, disadvantages,
criticisms and limitations of both centralised
and decentralised wastewater treatment
approaches have been extensively
summarized by Libralato et al. 2012, whoshowed that none of the approaches could
be excluded a priori, and that various
combinations of the two generally work better,depending on the local context.
The selection of appropriate and sustainablewastewater management solutions forcities or provinces in Vietnam depends on
various criteria, such as population density,
land requirements, proportion of connectedhouseholds, construction, operation andmaintenance (O&M) costs, social norms andpractices in each locality and ability to recover
O&M costs and at least part of construction
costs as stipulated in Decree No. 88/2007/
ND-CP, Decision 1930/QD-TTg and Decree
No. 25/2013/ND-CP. However, in practice,economic and financial viability, as well as
land requirement are often considered themost important criteria. It is evident that inmost cases a decentralised approach indensely populated areas with an existing
sewage collection system would not be a
viable alternative to centralised treatment(Libralato et al. 2012). The selection ofeither the decentralised or centralised
approach should be incorporated into urban
infrastructure planning as well as the sectoral
master plan.

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A s m e n t i o n e d e a r l i e r, t h o u s a n d s o fdecentralised wastewater treatment plants
have been constructed and installed in
Vietnam to date, many of which operate
effectively. In particular, as a result ofa F i n l a n d - Vi e t n a m g o v e r n m e n t t i e - u p ,t h e Wa t e r a n d S a n i t a t i o n P r o g r a m m e
for Small Towns in Vietnam has realised
decentralised wastewater treatment using
low-cost sanitation technologies, and has
shown to be a promising and appropriatetechnical solution for many sanitation
projects in Vietnam’s small and mediumsized towns. However, many obstacles haveto be overcome in order to replicate thisdecentralised model across the country.
Some of the major challenges are pointed
out below:- Technical aspects: lack of standards,
guidelines and technical manuals forthe design, construction, operation andmaintenance of decentralised wastewater
treatment systems as well as sludge
management from decentralized sanitation
facilities, including septage. Relevant
stakeholders often lack information andknowledge related to decentralised options.
- Financial aspects: the wastewater fee inurban areas is still too low to recover O&M
costs or system upgrades. In addition,
financial sustainability of sanitation projects
after their construction is still a big concern.
- Social aspect: there is no public awarenessof the need to treat wastewater in an
appropriate manner before discharging it
into the environment. Coordination between
populations and the sectoral authorities in
the collection and proper management of
septage is limited.

4. Institutional arrangements and legal
frameworkU r b a n s a n i t a t i o n i n Vi e t n a m i s g u i d e dby a number of ministries and agencies,
including the Ministry of Construction (MoC),
Ministry of Health (MoH), Ministry of Natural
Resources and Environment (MoNRE) and
Ministry of Science and Technologies (MoST)(Table 1). For example, MoC is responsiblefor development planning, introducing
technologies, issuing regulations andconstruction standards for these activities.
Meanwhile, water source and water source
Ministries

protection are the responsibility of MoNRE.
Water quality and standards for drinking waterand domestic water are managed by MoH.
Further, many water supply and sanitation
projects were implemented with support fromdonors, international organizations, local
communities or private sector.
H o w e v e r, o v e r a l l r e s p o n s i b i l i t y f o r t h e
sector falls under MoC, although work is
now increasingly being decentralised to theprovincial public service providers at themunicipal level.

Functions

Ministry of Construction (MoC)
Ministry of Natural Resources andEnvironment (MoNRE)
Ministry of Health (MoH)Line Ministry of urban water supply, sanitation and drainage
Manages water sources, water use, pollution and hydrology
Controls drinking water and sanitation quality

Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) Manages standardisation and technology in water and sanitation
Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) Allocates state budget. Approves investment projects (all projects
need approval)
Ministry of Finance (MoF)
Distributes state funds to sectors and projects, sets annual sector
goals and regulates accounting
Local Provincial People’s Committee
Manages local water supply and sanitation

Existing legal framework
A number of environmental law and regulations in Vietnam have been developed, but many
problems have been recognized during actual implementation stages. There are a number ofmajor legal documents directly related to the management and development of urban drainage andsewerage systems, including:• Law on Environmental Protection

promulgated November 29 2005, effective
July 2006• Decree No. 88/20 07/ND - CP of 28 May

2007 on Urban and Industrial-Park Water
Drainage, which provides for water drainage
activities in urban centers and industrial
parks, economic zones, export processing
zones and hi-tech parks and sets out rights
and obligations of organizations, individuals
and households involved in water drainage
activities. This Decree will be expired fromJanuar y 1st 2015, and replaced by new
Decree No. 80/2014/ND-CP dated August
0 6th 2014 on Drainage and Wastewater
Treatment.
• Circular No.09/2009/TT-BXD on 21/05/2009of Ministr y of Construction on provisions
implementing the content of Prime Minister’s
D e c r e e N o . 8 8 / 2 0 07/ N D - C P d a t e d
28/05/2007 on Urban Drainage and Industrial
Areas• Decision 1930/QD-TTg on 20/11/2009 of

Prime Minister approving Orientations forsewerage and drainage development in urban
centers and industrial zones up to 2025 anda vision for 2050. This is one of the main
points and objectives set out in the directionof systems related to collection and treatmentof urban wastewater. Accordingly, by 2025,
service coverage of storm-water drainage
systems is to be expanded to 100% in urban

7

7

centers of category IV or higher; seweragesystems shall be constructed in urban centersof category IV or higher; 70–80% of domestic
wastewater shall be collected, conveyed
and treated in accordance with the effluent
standards; in urban centers of category V
and craft villages, 50% of wastewater shall betreated in accordance with effluent standards;
in craft villages, decentralised WWTP shallbe constructed for treatment of wastewater inaccordance with effluent standards; 20–30%
of treated wastewater shall be recycled forwatering plants, cleaning roads and for otherpurposes in urban centers and industrial
parks.
• D e c i s i o n N o .16 / 2 0 0 8 / Q D - B T N M T o n

31/12/2008 of MONRE on national technicalregulations covering surface water quality,
underground water quality, coastal water,
wastewater, pesticide residues in soil.
• D e c r e e N o. 2 5 / 2 013 / N D - C P d a t e d

03/29/2013 on environmental protection
c h a r g e s f o r w a s t e w a t e r. T h i s D e c r e e
r e p l a c e s D e c r e e N o . 6 7/ 2 0 0 3 / N D - C P
dated 13/06/2003, No. 04/2007/ND-CP and
26/2010/ND-CP.
• V ietnam national c ode for wastewater

effluent quality QCVN 14: 2008/BTNMT• National regulation on surface water quality

QCVN 08:2008 /BTNMT

5. Management Models and Participationof Private Sector

6. Provision of finance and investment for
urban sanitation

Current status of urban drainage management
is mainly based on two management models,
including One Member State-owned Limited
Company and Joint Stock Company (JSC)
which the government holds 51% of theshares. Existing management models of urban
drainage and sewerage system in Vietnam
are operated based on asset management
mechanism from the city government, where
public enterprises are assigned to manage
properties of urban drainage systems, butproperties themselves are still owned by theprovincial or city governments. A fixed annual
budget is planned, approved and allocatedfrom the city budget by the city authority,
which often does not allow the company to put
sufficient invest in research and development
activities to optimize the operation of thewastewater systems.

The responsibility for urban infrastructure
in Vietnam, especially wastewater services,
often rests with local governments, but
most do not have the financial and/or
technical capacity to manage the scale,complexity, and costs of urban environment
programmes. Many wastewater utilities are
not fully prepared to operate on commercial
principles and attract private sector financing
and expertise. A sustained capacity-building
effort is therefore required to implement
urban wastewater management systems on alarge scale. While new wastewater treatment
facilities have been constructed, a recent
ADB performance review (ADB, 2013) foundthat legislation and regulations governingthese projects need to be amended to ensure
the limited financial resources are directed
to high-priority areas. Some investments
were misdirected to unnecessarily costly
treatment options or systems with high energy
requirements.

Most of the costs for operation andmaintenance of drainage and wastewater
treatment systems are covered by provincial
or city budgets; however, this budget is only
sufficient to meet about 10–20% of O&M
costs for collection systems, and excludes
O&M costs of wastewater treatment plants.
Revenue for wastewater operations is mostly
generated by application of a wastewater
surcharge on the water bills for all customers,
based on Decree No. 67/2003/ND-CP and its
replacement, Decree No. 25/2013/ND-CP.
In general, the current wastewater surcharge
for households is set at 10% of the water
tariff, except Hai Phong city with 15% (HaiPhong Portal, 2013) and Da Nang citywith 21%, expected to increase to 25% by2015 (Da Nang Portal, 2013) as a part ofcommitment signed between World Bank andVietnamese Government within the WorldBank’s Three Cities Sanitation Project (HaPhong, Dang Nang and Quang Ninh).
Because revenue from the wastewater fee is
still too low and does not cover construction
and O&M costs for wastewater operations.
Actual operational costs are generally
subsidised by city or provincial budgets.
Consequently, the private sector in Vietnam
found it an unattractive investment, unlike inthe water sector. In addition, private sector
investment is often left out of city sanitation
planning owing to the lack of regulatory
regimes, policies and incentive systems to
attract investments from the private sector.

8

It is estimated that current annual investmentin the sanitation sector in Vietnam accounts
for 0.45% of GDP, or about 250 million
USD (WMP-GIZ, 2013). Meanwhile, theaverage per capita cost to connect to a newwastewater system with adequate treatment
is 200–600 USD, suggesting that the
government will need to invest 6.4–20 billion
USD over 12 years to meet its target (ADB,2013).
In order to meet the target, the government
should encourage and attract the private
sector to invest in the wastewater sector in
the form of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPmodel) in order to realise improvements inoperational efficiency and service quality.
H o w e v e r, t h i s w o u l d r e q u i r e c l a r i t y o nasset ownership, reliable information on
existing infrastructure, clear assignment ofresponsibility for operation and maintenance,
standardisation of accounts and proceduresin line with international standards, and thetimely introduction and enforcement of water
and wastewater tariff increases to ensure atleast cost recovery.

7. Conclusions remarks
Urban wastewater treatment in Vietnam
is still in the early stages of development,
thus many challenges and obstacles havenbeen identified. However, there are also
many opportunities to improve the sector’s
performance. The following key policies
should be considered in the sector’s planning
process at both national and local levels:- Political will and improvements to existing
institutional and legal framework.
- Appropriate wastewater management
should not be limited to wastewater. Septage
management should be considered a criticalaspect of sanitation planning as well.
- Selection of either centralised or
decentralised approach, or combination ofboth approaches should be considered basedon actual local socio-cultural, institutional,
technical, economic and financial conditions.
In addition, the selected solution should
be incorporated into urban infrastructure
planning as well as the sectoral master planat an early stage.

99- Promulgation of regulations, national
standards and technical guidelines related todecentralised wastewater treatment models;management of decentralised wastewater
treatment works.
- Ensure financial stability and sustainability ofthe sector by utilising innovative and effective
financial management mechanisms andeconomic instruments.
- Encourage pro-active participation from all
relevant stakeholders, including households
and private sector involvement, and attract
investment into the sector in order to improvethe efficiency and quality of services.

7. References
Authors:
NGOC BAO Pham
Policy Researcher
Institute for Global
Environmental Strategies(WEPA Secretariat), Japan

Tetsuo Kuyama
Manager(Water Resource Management)
Institute for Global
Environmental Strategies(WEPA Secretariat), JapanADB (2009). Viet Nam: Urban Services and Water Supply and Sanitation Sector. Asian Development Bank.
Available on: http://www.adb.org/documents/urban-services-and-water-supply-and-sanitation-sector-vietnam
ADB (2013). Asian Development Outlook – Asian’s Energy Challenges. Asian Development Bank, Manila,
Philippines.
AECOM & SANDEC (2010). A Rapid Assessment of Septage Management in Asia: Policies and Practices
in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. AECOM International
Development, Inc. and the Department of Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries (Sandec) at the
Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag). Accessed on 20th December 2013,
http://www.waterlinks.org/library/septage-management/septage-report
Anh, N.V. (2013). On-site Wastewater Treatment in Vietnam. Proceedings of the Workshop on On-site
Domestic Wastewater Treatment in Asia held in Tokyo, November 2013.
Anh, N.V., Ha, T.D., Nhue, T.H., Heinss, U., Morel, A., Moura, M., Schertenleib, R. (2002). Decentralised
wastewater treatment - new concept and technologies for Vietnamese conditions. Proceedings of the 5thSpecialised Conference on Small Water and Wastewater Treatment Systems held on 24-26th September
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Layout:Yumi NishimuraInstitute for Global
Environmental Strategies, Japan

Contact:
WEPA secretatiat
Institute for Global Envrionmental Strategies[IGES]Natural Resources and Ecosystem Services Area
2108-11 Kamiyamaguchi, Hayama, Kanagawa,
240-0015, Japan
TEL: +81-46-855-3700, FAX: +81-46-855-3709
E-mail: contact@wepa-db.net
URL: http://www.iges.or.jp/

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Water Forum – Promoting Sustainable Development Investment held on 17th October 2013 in Ho Chi Minhcity, Vietnam.
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Environment Administration (VEA).
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www.chinhphu.vn/portal/page/portal/English
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Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) served as the WEPA Secretariat.
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October 2013 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
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Figure 3 & Figure 4: Pictures taken during the author’s field survey in Vietnam.

Acknowledgements:
Following WEPA partner and advisor kindly provided valuable comments and suggestion for thispolicy brief;

Do Nam Thang, Deputy Director, Institute of Science for Environmental Management(ISEM),
Vietnam Environment Administration, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
Daisuke Sano, Associate Professor, Hokkaido University, Japan
Hidenori Harada, Assistant Professor, Kyoto University

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