Quyết định 35/1999/QD-TTg

DECISION

RATIFYING THE ORIENTATION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF URBAN DRAINAGE IN VIETNAM UP TO THE YEAR 2020

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government of September 30, 1992;
At the proposal of the Minister of Construction in Report No. 35/TTr-BXD of November 20, 1998;

DECIDES:

Article 1.- To ratify the orientation for the development of urban drainage in Vietnam up to the year 2020 with the following main contents:

I. OBJECTIVE

The aim is to orientate the development of drainage in urban areas, serving the national industrialization and modernization and protecting the environment, which shall serve as basis for making appropriate investment to develop the drainage systems in the urban areas in a stable and sustainable way in each period.

A. IMMEDIATE OBJECTIVE (UP TO THE YEAR 2005)

To prepare well for developing the system of urban drainage and quickly improve the drainage situation in the urban areas:

1. Priority to drainage of rain-water:

- To eliminate the permanent water logging in the rainy season in the urban centers of Categories I and II, first of all in Hanoi capital and Ho Chi Minh City;

- To improve the drainage of rain-water in the urban areas from Category III to Category V; with regard to urban areas with favorable terrain conditions, study may be conducted to improve rain-water drainage at a higher level;

- To broaden the servicing scope of the drainage systems from 30- 40% at present to 50-60% and to 80% for Hanoi capital.

2. To improve and upgrade the system of drainage of waste water:

- Priority shall be given to Hanoi capital, Ho Chi Minh City and other major towns and tourist centers such as Hai Phong, Da Nang, Ha Long, Hue and Vung Tau;

- Local treatment of hospital waste water and industrial waste water before discharging it into the common sewers of the cities;

- To eliminate the system of night-soil collection into pails in the towns before 2005 (before 2001 for Hanoi capital); to secure enough public latrines at the places of big public use such as markets, train stations and bus stations;

- To preserve and act against degradation of the existing water drainage systems in the towns;

- To build the system of drainage and treatment of waste water with standards of environmental hygiene at the industrial zones, export processing zones and new urban centers.

3. To build the model of public utility enterprises for the urban drainage companies:

Step by step to overcome the mechanism of government subsidies; to issue the policy of drainage toll so that the drainage companies can have the source of income to defray the costs in management and operation.

4. To prepare the premises for long-term and sustainable development:

- To strengthen the organization at all levels and at the grassroots;

- To develop the human resource, to train officials and workers;

- To strengthen the legal system in managing and using water sources;

- To carry out education and popularization work in order to elevate the people�s knowledge;

- To produce equipment, accessories and materials in the country.

B. LONG-TERM OBJECTIVE (UP TO 2020)

To substantially settle the need in drainage aimed at protecting and upgrading the urban environment, serving well the people’s life and stepping up economic development in a speedy and sustainable way:

1. To do away with the usual water logging during the rainy season in the urban centers; each urban center shall have its own drainage system for waste water with an appropriate technology of treatment ensuring environment hygiene.

To broaden the servicing scope of the drainage systems in the urban centers from 50-60% at present to 80-90%; to 90-100% for Hanoi capital, Ho Chi Minh City, the towns of Category II and the towns lying in the key areas of economic and tourist development, as well as industrial areas and export processing zones.

2. To set up a financial mechanism to ensure the sustainable development of the urban drainage systems.

3. Scientific and technical development: To apply new technology through technology transfer and modernization of the urban drainage system in order to reach the international standard or a standard equivalent to that of the other regional countries.

4. To apply the advanced norms and rules in order to integrate Vietnam’s drainage system into other countries in the region and the world.

II. MAIN MEASURES

1. To strengthen the organization and to increase law enforcement and community education:

- To rationally organize the specialized branch of drainage under the Ministry of Construction in order to coordinate with the other relevant ministries and branches in fulfilling well the State management function such as: elaborating policies, planning, supervising, regulating, training, study of technology transfer, project management;

- To strengthen the organization and heighten the capacity of the specialized drainage service at the Construction Services, the Communication and Public Works Services and the Urban Drainage Companies in order to manage and carry out the general and specific planning of drainage of urban areas in the localities;

- To allocate jobs for different echelons and heighten the role of the local administration at various levels in directing the implementation of urban drainage in the localities;

- To strengthen law enforcement and create favorable legal environment in the domain of urban drainage;

- To intensify inter-branch activities in the community popularization and education, heighten the people’s knowledge and carry out the socialization of urban drainage; to increase measures to ensure hygiene of the streets, public places, in the collection of solid waste in order to overcome blockages of sewer and waste water collection gutters.

2. Renovation of financial policy, developing internal resources to create source of fund for development of urban drainage:

- Apart from State budget, it is necessary to mobilize other sources of fund from different economic sectors in the country;

- To secure foreign sources of fund, such as loans and aid from international banks, governments and other international organizations;

- To diversify the investments, promulgate policies of collecting drainage charges in order to ensure that the drainage companies can recover the costs of management and operation;

- To issue policies on tax and credit to encourage organizations and individuals inside and outside the country to invest in building drainage facilities.

- The State shall have to set level of investment to protect the environment related to drainage applicable to production, business and service establishments.

3. To study and apply synchronous technical measures; to modernize the technology of producing materials and equipment in the country:

- To step up and upgrade the quality and rationally program the specialized drainage planning in conformity with the common plan and detailed plans of the functional areas of the urban centers; to insure reasonable acreage for the building of the drainage facilities in the plan of land use in the urban centers;

- For the new urban centers, there must be synchronous investment in the works related to drainage and the environment right in the initial stage;

- To stipulate and closely manage the heights of constructions in each area in order to prevent local water logging in the urban areas;

- To select and apply drainage measures and different technologies from simple to modern, appropriate for each area and each urban center, with attention being paid to the urban centers in the Mekong River delta, the low-lying fields, the mountain areas and other specific regions;

- For the majority of urban centers, in the initial stage, to apply simple technology, and make the most of the natural conditions to drain rain-water and treat waste water, such as the absorption capability of the soil, the capability of regulating diluted rain-water and cleaning waste water by biological method in the ponds, lakes, rivers and canals and through sea tides;

- To apply advanced and modern technologies for major cities such as Hanoi capital, Ho Chi Minh City, industrial areas, export processing zones, tourist centers;

- To strive to produce by the years 2010-2015 about 70% of the materials and equipment and spare parts in the drainage system such as pumps, shakers, various types of pipe, drainage sluices, accessories (valves, tee, elbows, joints), filtering materials, chemicals...

4. Stepping up training and development of human resources:

- To train enough skilled personnel to manage and operate well the system of drainage system and to effectively use the fund and modern technique brought into Vietnam, through the different projects. To strive to supply enough trained workers for all levels from the center to the localities and grassroots by the year 2005. To work out a comprehensive program of training of personnel, from the leading officials and managers, scientific and technical workers, economists and financial workers to operating and maintenance personnel.

- To create favorable conditions for officials and workers in the country to work directly with foreign specialists in order to learn from the latter and improve their standard. On the other hand, to adopt policies to encourage the participation and contribution of Vietnamese specialists living abroad.

- To develop the specialized training centers for drainage; to set up or expand the drainage speciality at the higher education institutions: the College of Construction, the College of Architecture, the Polytechnic Institute; to develop the job training centers training specialized drainage workers with high skills.

Article 2.- The Ministry of Construction is assigned the task of taking the main responsibility and coordinating with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Health, the Government Commission for Organization and Personnel, and the relevant ministries and branches, the People’s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities to provide guidance for the implementation of the orientation for the development of urban drainage up to the year 2020; to concretize the contents in Article 1 of this Decision in order to ensure fruitful implementation of the program of investment in building and developing the drainage system in the urban centers throughout the country; to work out or revise the new general plan, the immediate and long-term plans of each locality in conformity with the plan of urban development so as to form the basis for the deployment of the project of investment in urban drainage.

Article 3.- This Decision takes effect 15 days after its signing.

The ministers, the heads of the ministerial-level agencies, the heads of the agencies attached to the Government and the presidents of the People’s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities shall have to implement this Decision.