Residents in Mekong Delta no longer worry out shortage of water because fresh clean water pipe is installed in front of their house
In many parts of the Mekong Delta, people had worried about saltwater intrusion in the dry season before leading to a shortage of freshwater, affecting production and life. Most obviously, in the dry seasons in 2015-2016 and 2019-2020, people in many rural areas of the Mekong Delta suffered from a crippling water shortage.
However, this year, when the region braced for the dry season, Ms. Tran Thi Tron in hamlet 4 in Ca Mau Province’s U Minh District as well as many inhabitants here no longer have to change each barrel of water to use as before thanks to the clean water pipe pulling across her house. Showing two pots in front of the house full of water, elderly Tron said well water can't be used for watering plants because it is heavily contaminated with alum. The ponds around the house are all saltwater. Cooking rice, washing vegetables, washing clothes must be as economical as possible. That was years ago, inhabitants now have clean water without worrying about water shortages.
Similarly, this year's dry season, thousands of households in coastal communes such as Van Khanh, Van Khanh Dong, Van Khanh Tay in An Minh district of Kien Giang Province no longer suffer from water shortage. A 600,000 cubic meter freshwater reservoir worth VND123 billion has been put into use for production and daily life in An Minh District. People in the district have no fretted desperate shortage of freshwater.
Chairman of the People's Committee of Van Khanh commune Duong Thanh Phong said that every year in the dry season, about 400 households in the commune face a shortage of water for daily use, but they have no longer suffered lack of water. The water supplied from the factory is both clean and low in price… so people are very excited.
According to Director of the Center for Clean Water and Rural Sanitation in Bac Lieu Province Truong Quoc Quang, after the historic droughts, the local administration has taken heed of the investment in domestic water for rural areas. In addition, people in drought-salt areas actively bought tools and dug ponds and lakes to store water. Therefore, this year the shortage of clean water is no longer stressful.
Despite such efforts, some places in the region still see a shortage of domestic water in the dry season in the Mekong Delta, such as in the U Minh Ha forest stand in Ca Mau Province where the water source in this area is contaminated with alum and few people live here; therefore, it is difficult to invest in clean water stations. Local inhabitant Phan Be Tu at canal 33 in Nguyen Phich Commune in U Minh District moaned her house has no freshwater a few months after the Lunar New Year although she had bought water bottles and tanks to store water. Consequently, she had no choice but bought tanks of fresh water at high prices.
According to Director of the Center for Rural Clean Water and Sanitation in Ca Mau Province Nguyen Hanh Phuc, due to the characteristics of natural conditions, many places in Ca Mau do not have additional freshwater sources in the dry season. For years, the majority of people in rural areas use well water for domestic use with more than 176,500 households, about 76 percent while 41,400 households have been using water from centralized water supply and the remaining (about 14,000 households) lacks domestic water in the dry season.
In order to ensure freshwater supply for people in the dry season, the local administration in Ca Mau Province has built a freshwater reservoir with an area of 102ha in U Minh area, with a cost of over VND180 billion. The freshwater reservoir is expected to provide domestic water for about 113,000 people.
Vice Chairman of Ca Mau Provincial People's Committee Le Van Su said that the freshwater reservoir will provide water for domestic use and store water for forest fire prevention and for agricultural production in the dry season.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in the past time, local authorities have built water reservoirs, lakes in some Mekong Delta provinces such as Cai Lon and Cai Be sluices, Kenh Lap lake in Ben Tre Province, Ha Tien city water reservoir in Kien Giang Province, a reservoir in Vi Thuy District in Hau Giang Province for ensuring water supply for daily life and agricultural production for people in areas affected by drought and salinity.
In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has also approved the investment policy of the project of water storage and domestic water supply systems in areas with polluted water sources, water scarcity areas, affected by saline intrusion in the Mekong Delta.
The investment policy of water storage and water supply projects aim to provide clean water for daily life for people with water scarcity, places with polluted water sources, coastal areas, affected by drought and salinity in seven Mekong Delta provinces, benefitting 132,242 households. Under the new construction project, about 41 concentrated domestic water supply works and a 230,000 cubic meter new freshwater reservoir on Tho Chau Island, water treatment station and other ancillary items will be built. Moreover, 38 concentrated domestic water supply works will be upgraded.
These projects will be carried out from 2022 to 2025 with a total estimated investment is about VND1,104 billion taken from the state budget.
