Hanoi to Spend $455.5M to Cleanse Nhue River

The Vietnamese capital of Hanoi will spend more than VND8.7 trillion ($455.5 million) on a project to cleanse Nhue river and strengthen the land use management in the river basin from now up to 2015. The money will be sourced from the state budget, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, g-bonds and the city’s budget, the state-run Vietnam New Agency said. Of the sum, VND7.8 trillion will be used to dredge the river and build pumping stations, VND600 billion to upgrade dykes, and VND360 billion to construct a wastewater treatment plant with a daily capacity of 20,000 cu.m. The project is aimed to ensure water for the irrigation in the dry season and reduce flooding for the city in the rainy season. In 2008, Hanoi experienced a historic floods triggered by torrential rains with damages of VND3 trillion ($157 million) and the city needed VND1 trillion to handle the aftermaths.