VietNamNet Bridge – Ground water exploitation in most inner-city districts and a section of Nha Be District will be banned if the map of restricting ground water exploitation is approved.

In the outlying districts of 12, Hoc Mon, and Cu Chi there will be no restrictions on digging wells and drawing water except with regard to the depth at which water can be exploited.— Photo dwrm

According to the map prepared by the Division for Water Resources Planning and Investigation for Southern Vietnam in coordination with the HCMC Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the ground water exploitation will be banned in an area of 195 square kilometers and limited in an area of 1,268 square kilometers. Meanwhile, ground water can only be exploited in 572 square kilometers, mainly in District 12, Hoc Mon and Cu Chi.

Phan Van Tuyen, head of the division’s research team, said that the areas where the ground water exploitation is banned have low water levels, carry high risks of subsidence, or areas near salinity sources and landfills.

“The exploitation ban will increase ground water, reduce subsidence risks, avoid salinity intrusion and pollution,” Tuyen said.

According to Tuyen, the banned and limited areas are mainly near industrial parks, residential areas and factories using large volumes of ground water.

The HCMC government’s Decision 69 was issued in 2007 to limit the ground water exploitation in 29 wards of inner-city districts.

Such areas also had the ground water levels lower than the permitted level, were near salinity boundaries, had ground water contaminated with nitrogen with a content of over 7mg per liter, and faced subsidence.

However, with the new proposal of the research group, the banned areas will be expanded much.

Incomplete statistics of the HCMC Department of Natural Resources and Environment show that HCMC currently exploits 669,000 cubic meters of ground water each day.

However, there are only 46 units at eight export processing zones and industrial parks in HCMC licensed to exploit ground water with a volume of 34,270 cubic meters per day.

Under the water supply planning until 2025 approved by the Prime Minister in 2012, HCMC will mainly use surface water from the Dong Nai and Saigon rivers and be allowed to exploit only 100,000 cubic meters of ground water per day in 2025.

Source: SGT