The Binh Hung Canal is 4 km long and situated in the northeast part of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It serves a drainage area of 785 hectares (ha) and currently collects domestic wastewater from a population of about 120,000 people living in a poor area of the city. Furthermore, industrial and food processing operations, including textile-dying factories, seafood processing plants and paper mills, discharge unknown amounts of wastewater into the canal.This overload of pollutants results in fully anaerobic conditions in the canal and a bad odour. Because of the black appearance of the water, the canal is now called the Den (black) Canal.