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Nearly 2 mln people in HCMC not accessible to clean water

Nearly 2 mln people in HCMC not accessible to clean water

Tuesday, October 14, 2014, 17:33 GMT+7

328,000 households, or nearly 2 million people, in Ho Chi Minh City have no clean water to use, according to the latest report by the state-owned Saigon Water Supply Corporation (SAWACO).

>> Vietnam firms donate tanks to bring clean water to rural districts According to a survey by the Radio Voice of Vietnam (VOV), hundreds of thousands of households in the city's outskirts, including Cu Chi, Hoc Mon, Binh Chanh, Nha Be Districts have to use unhygienic water from canals or alum-contaminated water from wells. In areas without clean water supply, people have to buy bottled water for drinking and cooking for VND12,000 - 15,000 (US$0.7)  per can of 20 liters. If a family has five members, it has to spend about VND35,000 ($1.65) on clean water per day. Meanwhile, according to Resolution 38 of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council on economic, culture and social missions, all the urban population of the city will have clean water to use by the end of this year, as this is the minimum right of people, VOV said.Polluted water The VOV cited Le Van Cu, a resident in Long Phuoc Ward, District 9, as saying, “Since South Vietnam was liberated [April 30, 1975], residents here have mainly used water from rivers and canals for their daily activities. But as the Dong Nai River has been polluted, many households have built tanks to store rainwater.” Currently, Dong Nai and Saigon Rivers have seriously been polluted due to salt intrusion, rubbish, industrial waste and domestic wastewater. The overexploitation of groundwater in Ho Chi Minh City in recent years has severely contaminated the groundwater source and may lead to land subsidence. Therefore, the water supply for the people is a matter of urgency, not only to ensure social security, but also to protect the water resources of the city in the future. In order to overcome the shortage of clean water in heavily contaminated areas, SAWACO has applied a temporary solution: using trucks to carry clean water to these areas for sale to people, the VOV said. However, trucks cannot access rural or remote areas where traffic infrastructure is still poor, so this solution is not really effective.Difficulties SAWACO has proposed an increase in the price of water and said it needs to get a loan of VND1,520 billion (US$71.7 million)  to implement water supply projects in the city, the VOV said. However, the company has yet to set out solutions to attract more investment from society into improving the city’s water supply. According to VOV, people in many localities suggested a solution in which they volunteer to contribute money to investments in water supply systems in return for a deduction in monthly water bills, but SAWACO refused. Meanwhile, investors wanting to invest in the water sector face many barriers in administrative procedures, forms of investment and profit sharing. SAWACO said the development or improvement of the city’s water supply is very difficult as there are so many underground technical works, and a lack of coordination among concerned agencies. Even in many alleys, drainage works occupy nearly all the underground part, leaving no space for water supply pipelines, the company said.  “SAWACO has made efforts to develop the water supply networks, but the development requires time and a huge capital investment,” the VOV quoted Le Huu Quang, manager of Sales and Customer Service Department of SAWACO, as saying. Investment in water supply is not attractive to investors as it has a low profit rate. Therefore, the mobilization of capital for water supply in the city faces a lot of difficulties, Quang said.

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