Since 2018, Ho Chi Minh City has been implementing a plan to reduce groundwater extraction. At that time, the total extraction volume of groundwater reached more than 716,000 cubic meters per day in the city.
By 2025, the city sets a target of reducing the total volume of daily groundwater extraction to 100,000 cubic meters.
After five years of the implementation, groundwater extraction has significantly reduced to over 252,000 cubic meters daily, achieving 75.3 percent of the target.
Of these, household’s groundwater extraction volume has decreased from 356,000 cubic meters per day to nearly 130,000 cubic meters per day.
However, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Natural Resources and Environment disclosed that it is difficult to reduce groundwater exploitation owing to obstacles and challenges. For instance, the law does not prohibit households and units from extracting groundwater on a scale not exceeding ten cubic meters per day; residents just need to declare and register with local authorities if they have demand of groundwater extraction.
Another reason is that residents want to save on usage costs so they continue using wells only or use both well and tap water.
Particularly, some households in Districts 12 and the districts of Go Vap, Binh Tan, Cu Chi, Hoc Mon and Binh Chanh still use the two water sources simultaneously because some areas in the districts have limited water supply, insufficient systems, unstable water pressure, or lack of water supply pipelines.
