Germany Helps Vietnam Better Underground Water Management

The Vietnamese Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources signed an ODA agreement for a project on underground water management and investigation in the former’s urban areas. The project is aimed to improve the capacity in comprehensive management and investigation of underground water resources for the ministry’s Center for Water Resources Planning and Investigation and the departments of Natural Resources and Environment in Hanoi, Ha Nam, Nam Dinh, Quang Ngai and Soc Trang. The project’s first phase will focus on building 3D model and water resource observation systems in the northern province of Nam Dinh while the second phase will benefit the four other localities. In fact, most people in Vietnam are using untreated surface water and the increasing pollution to both surface and underground water reserves has made it essential for proper treatment methods to be applied to ensure clean water supply for local residents, experts said. Vietnam has been officially added to the list of the nations that are facing the water shortage due to uncontrolled exploitation, they warned, adding that the overexploitation has gone beyond the withstanding of the ecological system. On most of the river valleys in the southeastern region, more than 75% of water volume in the dry season is exploited. As for Ma river basin, the rate is up to 80%. The proportions show that the chaotic overexploitation has created the unsustainability to the valleys. Vietnam is estimated to consume some 80.6 billion cu.m of water per year for different purposes. The volume of water to be used by 2020 is likely to rise by 48%, or 120 billion cu.m. The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) earlier warned that around 8.4 million Vietnamese people or 9.66% of its population will likely to suffer from water shortfall by 2050. (Thoi Bao Kinh Te – Economic Times Mar 6 p3, thiennhien.net Mar 6)