Located in the commercial hub's "city within a city" - Thu Duc City - and near the confluence of the Saigon and Soai Rap rivers, the plant's capacity of 480,000 cubic meters per day will treat all domestic wastewater in the six central districts of the southern metropolis - Districts 1, 2, 3, Binh Thanh, Phu Nhuan, and Tan Binh.
Construction on the VND6-trillion (US$233 million) facility began in 2020 and appears to be right on schedule for completion in June 2025.
The plant is part of the second phase of HCMC's Environmental Sanitation Project funded entirely by the municipal public budget. The larger $524-million-project's master plan includes eight construction packages, the largest of which is the water treatment center.
Its treated wastewater will be discharged into the Saigon River.
The project spans 39 hectares of filter systems, sludge treatment tanks, pump stations, drainage pipes, embankments, and an operations building.
These wastewater treatment tanks, the plant's most crucial components, have taken on their basic shape.
According to the project's managers at the HCMC Urban Project Management Board, the plant will apply advanced biological treatment technology, using mobile carriers for microorganisms to remove organic substances from the wastewater.
The wastewater will first be pumped into a biological treatment tank before passing through cleaning and sedimentation tanks. As a final step, ultraviolet (UV) light exposure will disinfect the water.
Dense scaffolding installed over the filter tanks reveals some of the construction undertaking's massive scale.
Workers toil in the sun over the sludge treatment tanks that are also taking shape. Some 40 laborers work in this area daily.
Operating as a large-scale disinfectant, this UV treatment tank is where wastewater undergoes its final treatment phase before being discharged into the river.
Some components, such as discharge pipes and embankments, are being built with the assistance of barges carrying cranes.
The contractor, Acciona - Vinci Joint Venture Construction based in Thu Duc City, said these days 600 workers and engineers are working around-the-clock to ensure progress.
Major electromechanical equipment has been ordered and is expected to arrive at the construction site by August for the second half of construction.
A private contractor consortium will operate the plant until 2029 under the built-transfer contract, after which it will be handed over to local public HCMC authorities.
The Nhieu Loc – Thi Nghe Canal.
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Urban Infrastructure Construction Investment Project Management Board, the entire city's current total urban domestic wastewater treatment capacity of 644,000 cubic meters per day meets only about 40% of the metropolis' daily wastewater volume.
The completion of the plant will increase the urban domestic wastewater treatment capacity to at least over 1.1 million cubic meters per day.
HCMC currently has three other large wastewater treatment plants in operation: Binh Hung with a capacity of 469,000 cubic meters, the Tham Luong – Ben Cat Canal complex (capacity of 131,000 cubic meters), and the Binh Hung Hoa center (30,000 cubic meters).
