The People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City on April 21 organised a meeting in Binh Chanh District to launch ‘Clean Water Week’ and an environmental sanitation programme, which was attended by many city leaders.
Addressing the meeting, Le Minh Tri, vice chairman of the HCMC People’s Committee, stressed the importance and responsibility of every citizen in protecting the environment and keeping water resources safe and clean.
For years, the city has mobilised efforts to construct clean water supply systems and protect these resources. To date, the city has constructed 27,290 functioning toilets and 1,314 biogas tankers to bury waste from breeding farms in suburban districts of the city.
Currently, the city is facing many challenges in providing clean and safe water to residents as well as complicated environmental issues, as more and more people from rural areas flock to the city to work and live.
Water resources are being over-exploited and are under pressure to be able to provide 10 million people, and waste from industrial and export processing zones is continually polluting these water resources.
On the same day, the Tan Nhut Water Supplier in Binh Chanh District was inaugurated, having capacity to supply 1,290 cubic metres every 24 hours. The water supplier was upgraded, at a cost of VND7.8 billion (US$ 375 million), to meet the increasing demand of people in Tan Nhut Commune.
| The Prime Minister has approved targets for the National Program for Rural Water Supplies and Sanitation during the 2012-2015 period. The program aims to ensure that 65 percent of the rural population has hygienic sanitation, 45 percent of farming households have hygienic breeding facilities and that 100 percent of schools, nursery schools and medial centres in rural areas have access to clean water and sewerage facilities. The total investment for the program is estimated at almost 27.6 trillion VND. Of this amount, almost 19.8 trillion VND will be spent on the project to ensure rural water supplies, nearly 6 trillion VND will be spent on the rural environment sanitation project and about 1.9 trillion VND on other associated works. The 2006-2010 National Program for Rural Water Supplies and Sanitation achieved its set targets, resulting in more than 52 million people having access to clean water by the end of 2010, 13.2 million people more than in late 2005. (VNA) |
