The sponsor has presented plans to address these impacts to ensure that the proposed project will, upon implementation of the specific measures agreed, comply with applicable host country laws and regulations and World Bank/IFC requirements. The information about how these potential impacts will be addressed by the sponsor/project is summarized in the paragraphs that follow.
Waste management practices at F-V Hospital will be of international standard and will follow those specified by the Vietnamese Ministry of Health. The hospital will, prior to beginning operations, develop a health-care waste management plan (HHWMP). Infectious, hazardous and other hospital waste will be segregated in color-coded containers for treatment and disposal. Human anatomical wastes, blood and fluids, microbiological waste and other biotechnical waste will all be incinerated. Other wastes will be handled and disposed of according to international standards according to procedures laid out in the HHWMP. The hospital is designed to store medical waste safely until it can be removed for incineration. Incineration will be at an off-site facility, owned by the Urban Environment Company. F-V Hospital is required to use this facility. The facility collects waste from all Ho Chi Minh City hospitals. The incinerator is manufactured by Hoval of Lichtenstein. It employs a gas-fired pyrolytic chamber that produces heat sufficient to avoid the release of dioxins into the air. It has a capacity of 7.5 tons per day and currently receives 5.5 tons of waste (73 per cent of capacity). As a 200 bed facility, F-V Hospital will produce and ship to the incinerator an estimated 300 kilos of waste per day, or an additional 4 per cent of capacity. An additional incinerator with a capacity of 5 tons per day is planned for the end of 2001. Transport of the waste is done in purpose-built collection bins and refrigerated trucks. There are currently six refrigerated trucks for medical waste disposal, which is sufficient for inclusion of the F-V Hospital. The HHWMP will also incorporate a healthcare worker safety and health program and employee training and orientation.
Radioactive waste from the nuclear medicine facility will not go directly into the wastewater treatment facility. Such waste will be held on-site until the radiation level has decayed sufficiently, then it will be disposed of as domestic waste. A dual tank system will be on site to hold waste until it has decayed acceptably.
The hospital will have an on-site sewage treatment plant capable of accepting and treating 250 m3/day. The treated effluent will meet either World Bank/IFC or Vietnamese standards, whichever is stricter.
The presence of acid sulfide soils on the site is not known, but likely. The site will be covered with earthfill to a depth of 1.5 meters. Pile cap foundations will be placed on the surface of the fill: excavation will not, therefore, be required. Minor excavations will be needed for the water and sewage treatment plant tanks. The local land management authority, the Management Authority for South Saigon, has designated specific areas for disposal of soils. With acid sulfide soils, disposal will be to a proper management facility in accordance with local standards.
The construction will follow Decision No 29/1999 of the Ministry of Construction on regulating environmental issues during construction and will also maintain international good practice. For the piling works, all construction equipment will be fitted with noise suppressors and work limited to the hours between 7 am and 7 pm, except on Sunday when work will stop. During regular construction, noise suppressors will be used. The pouring of concrete will sometimes have to be done at night due to restrictions on trucks in the city during the day. Noise from this activity, however, will be minimal, and the ban on day trucking will reduce traffic impacts from construction. Dust will be reduced by water water trucks. Exhaust emissions from plant and equipment based on the site will be monitored and any equipment with excessive discharge will be repaired or removed from the site. Servicing and maintenance of equipment will be carried out in designated areas with concrete floors. Fuel storage tanks will be surrounded by bunds.
Water heating will be through heat reclaimed from the air-conditioners. Two back-up generators will generate between 750 to 1000 kVA, which will release minimal emissions when operating. Air conditioners will use acceptable CFC substitutes.
The Hospital building will meet the guidelines for fire and life safety, or their equivalent, as set forth in the current NFPA-101 code. A Registered Fire Consultant will certify the project at two points in time, the first will be certification that the design of the Fire and Life Safety provisions of the project meet the requirements of the NFPA and that after the completion of construction, further certification that the building was constructed in accordance with the earlier certified design.
In addition to the use of waste heat from air conditioners, exhaust heat from patient rooms will be used to precool incoming fresh air and the light circuits will allow manual switching to low-levels at night. The hospital will be seeking to attain the recommendations of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Victoria (Australia).
The site comprises 25,000m2 within Parcel No. MD5, South Saigon, Tan Phu Ward, District 7, Ho Chi Minh City. The site is already partially filled. Access will be from the South Saigon Parkway via Broadway. It will be sited so as to minimize disruptions to traffic on the Parkway. The site is currently not inhabited and is unused. As part of the general development of the South Saigon area,an unknown number of people were resettled from the site 4-5 years ago. To improve the lives of households that had to be resettled, the Hospital will develop medical outreach programs for the resettlement zone.
