Faults found in waste water treatment plant

HCM CITY — More than 160 design and construction faults had been discovered in a new waste water treatment plant and pumping station in Binh Chanh District, causing many operation difficulties in its first year, the plant's operator said.

Forty of the faults at the Binh Hung waste water treatment plant and the Dong Dieu pumping station had yet to be repaired, despite still being under warranty, deputy director general of the HCM City Urban Drainage Company Le Tho Dac said.

Dac told the municipal People's Council's Commission of Economy and Budget on a tour of the project last week that the other 121 faults had been fixed after they had been reported to the contractors, investors and project managers.

A representative of the waste water treatment plant had warned that the faults would seriously affect the plant's operation without being promptly fixed.

"For example, the centrifugal mud machine is inoperable, affecting the whole mud treatment system," Dac said. "And the foundation has sunk, affecting underground works and breaking an underground cable which led to a blackout."

Technical equipment storage trenches had also leaked, Dac said.

"The company has required the project's contractor to quickly fix the remaining faults before the warranty expires in February."

Deputy head of the economy and budget commission Huynh Cong Hung asked the project manager and operator to continue supervising the repair and report the results to the municipal People's Committee.

The waste treatment plant and the pumping station are part of the city's environment improvement project in the Tau Hu-Ben Nghe-Doi-Te canals.

Construction of the Binh Hung plant, worth US$100 million, began in November 2004 and its operation started in mid 2009.

With a capacity of 141,000cu.m per day, the plant receives 40 million cubic metres of storm water and waste water from districts 1, 3 and 5 and part of District 10 for treatment each day.

It is expected to treat waste water for districts 4, 6 and 8 and part of District 10 in the next phase. — VNS

Source: Vietnam News Agency

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