Vietnam Southern Province to be at High Risk of Underground Water Shortage

Vietnam’s Mekong Delta province of Dong Nai is likely to face a lack of underground water sources in the near term due to uncontrolled exploitation, warned experts. The provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment said that Dong Nai reports nearly 340 concentrated wells in industrial parks and about 88,000 other wells of different types.  A large number of unused wells are recorded in Tan Phu, Cam My and Trang Bom districts as well as Long Khanh town. These wells have caused serious pollution to underground water sources. To cope with well-related pollution, local authorities will fill 1,000 wells by end-2011, which will likely cause the water source pollution, the department attributed. Dong Nai is piloting filling 100 wells of the high-risk group in Long Thanh district in a bid to curb the pollution, it added. Earlier, Doctor Duong Van Vien of Ho Chi Minh City-based Water Resources University noted that the underground water level in the Mekong Delta region is likely to fall to the dead water in 2014 due to excessive tapping if strong measures are not timely taken. (Cong An Nhan Dan – People’s Police Dec 23 p14)