Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung April 19 approved to set up a steering board for a national program on tap water loss prevention which is chaired by Minister of Construction, the government said on its website late April 20. Under the program, the country has set a target to cut the ratio of clean water leakage to below 25% by 2015 from 30% in 2009. The ratio is expected to be 18% in 2020 and 15% in 2025. The program will focus on building data on water meters and pipelines and managing them by using Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geospatial Information System (GIS). Specialized groups will be also set up to prevent clean water leakage in water supply companies, especially in big cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Danang which reported high rate of water loss.
Vietnam is estimated to lose VND165 trillion ($7.89 billion) from water leakage a year. It also reportedly lost nearly 1.8 million cubic meters of clean water a day in 2009. (baodientu.chinhphu.vn April 20)
