Nearly two million people or a quarter of the population in Vietnam’s southern metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City face shortage of drinking water, the state-owned Saigon Water Supply Corporation (SAWACO) said in a latest report. Hundreds of thousands of households on the outskirts, including Cu Chi, Hoc Mon, Binh Chanh, Nha Be Districts have to use unhygienic water from canals or alum-contaminated well water. In such areas, local people have to buy bottled water for drinking and cooking at a price between VND12,000 ($0.57) - 15,000 per 20-liter can. A five-member family needs to spend about VND35,000 ($1.65) on safe water per day. Le Van Cu, a resident in Long Phuoc Ward of District 9 said that local residents have mainly used water from canals and rivers, including Dong Nai river, for their daily activities since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. They have built tanks to store rainwater as Dong Nai river gets polluted. Currently, Dong Nai and Saigon rivers have seriously been polluted due to saltwater intrusion, rubbish, industrial waste and domestic wastewater. The overexploitation has severely contaminated the groundwater source and may lead to land subsidence. But the locals will face more difficulties as SAWACO has proposed a rise in the price of drinking water and said it needs to get a loan of VND1.5 trillion ($71.7 million) to carry out water supply projects in the city. (Tuoitrenews.vn Oct 14)
