Vietnam’s southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City is estimated to need around VND37 trillion ($1.78 billion) for tap water supply projects from now through 2025, heard a recent seminar. Of the total, VND30 trillion will be earmarked between 2011 and 2015 and the rest will be for the next ten years, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported. Participants have proposed to urgently make plans on exploiting raw water sources from Tri An and Dau Tieng reservoirs instead of the increasingly polluted water sources from Dong Nai and Saigon Rivers to benefit its urban citizens. The projects are also aimed to reduce the rate of water leakage to 32% in 2015 and 25% in 2025 from the current 40%. HCM City is estimated to lose roughly VND2.6 billion from water leakage per day. The metropolis is expected to provide 2.4 million cu.m of water for local residents per day and build 1,393 km of clean water pipelines by the next five years. (Tuoi Tre – Youth Sept 12 p3)
