On July 23 2015 in Ho Chi Minh City, the activity field 3 “Vocational training for the wastewater sector” under “the Programme Reform of TVET in Viet Nam (GIZ)” and the project “German – Vietnamese Cooperation for the Competence Development of the Vietnamese Water Sector”, DEVIWAS, successfully co-hosted an experience sharing seminar on “Operating residential wastewater treatment plants”. The seminar attracted a number of engineers from Southern sewerage companies in Ho Chi Minh City, Vung Tau and Can Tho that are about to operate wastewater treatment plants.

At the seminar, the companies pointed out issues in sewerage and wastewater treatment management regulations, in which the operation contract must be annually extended, that cause passiveness in resources and investment. Mr. Norbert Lucke, a German specialist at Dresden Sewerage Company, emphasized the importance of long-term contracts on operation planning and maintenance for the sustainable implementation of technical infrastructures. He also shared that small-scale German sewerage companies attain a minimum 3-year-contract, and an indefinite agreement is applied to large-scale ones.

In addition, Vietnamese and German engineers discussed technical methods of increasing the efficiency of wastewater treatment by adjusting hydraulic residence times in aeration tanks, controlling optimum sludge age, and avoiding shock caused by water flow inlet change.

At the end, Mr. Ly Tho Dac, Vice President of Ho Chi Minh Urban Drainage Company showed his appreciation: “The seminar has not only fostered a great practical technical forum, but also brought about positive changes in awareness, so the companies may prepare more suitable proposals to submit to the investors.”