Underground water supplies discovered

HA GIANG (VNS)— The Northern Division for Water Resources Planning and Investigation has confirmed its discovery of a significant source of underground water in the northern mountainous Ha Giang Province's Meo Vac District.

Hoang Van Nhu, director of the provincial Natural Resources and Environment Department, said "both the quality and quantity of the underground water source satisfy the needs of the local people living in Dong Van Rock Plateau".

The plateau, which is 1,000-1,400 metres above sea level, covers four districts: Dong Van, Meo Vac, Quan Ba and Yen Minh.

Local people have suffered from a lack of water for a long time, impacting both their daily needs and agricultural production, Nhu said.

Scientists from the division drilled the first hole leading to the discovery of the underground water source in Meo Vac District's Pa Vi Commune in 2007.

After that, the division began a project to investigate further water sources in Meo Vac Town.

The project played an important role in helping local people improve their daily lives and increase agricultural production, he said.

PhD Tong Ngoc Thanh, chief of the division, said that over the past three years the scientists have been collecting documents and conducting surveys to identify other areas in the district which might contain underground water sources.

Then, the scientists began to drill and take water samples for tests, he said.

Underground water has been discovered at five of the seven holes they investigated, he said. – VNS