HCM City – HSBC Việt Nam will donate US$700,000 for a two-year community-based fresh-water resources conservation and management project, which will be carried out by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Việt Nam.

The company will send 350 staff members, who are trained to preserve freshwater resources, to meet with local residents in Tràm Chim in the Mekong Delta province of Đồng Tháp and the Vũ Gia – Thu Bồn rivers basin in the central city of Đà Nẵng with technical support from WWF Việt Nam in order to control and improve quality of water.

“HSBC has co-operated with WWF globally on the HSBC Water Programme with total investment of US$150 million since 2012. The programme has brought fresh water to 2.5 million people around the world,” Phạm Hồng Hải, HSBC Việt Nam general director said at yesterday’s project launching ceremony.

“It will help our staff to increase its awareness about the environment, improve its cohesiveness with company and show corporate social responsibility (CSI),” he added.

Trịnh Thị Long, co-ordinator of WWF-Việt Nam’s Water Programme said: “We are very happy to have a partner like HSBC because right now, awareness to preserve nature is very low and we hope in the future more enterprises will donate and participate with us in the struggle to preserve nature.”

Long explained that along with educating and guiding local residents about how to control and protect their water resources and bringing local communities into dialogue with the government, the project will work with high-level leaders to show them how to better manage and improve the quality of water resources.

“We will show local residents how to sustainably maintain their water resources,” she added.

In the Vũ Gia – Thu Bồn river basin, the project will pay attention to the reservoirs in the region, which are believed to have been responsible for recent serious flooding.

In Tràm Chim, the project will implement a deeper study about water remaining for the whole year in order to prevent fires.

Water fresh usage is an essential right for people. However, according to research recently published, by 2100, half of the Mekong Delta would be sunk under sea level and the rest will suffer from salinisation, regular storms and flooding.

Besides climate change and rising sea levels, human activities such as over-exploitation of sand and hydropower dams on major rivers have seriously changed the biological system of the river. -- VNS