HÀ NỘI — Up to 2,000 households with 7,800 residents in Văn Đức Commune of Hà Nội’s Gia Lâm District do not have access to clean water following the Health Ministry’s standards.

The reason, according to a report by Dân Trí online newspaper, has been blamed on delayed progress or slow approval of clean water projects.

Hoàng Anh Tú, chief of the secretariat of the People’s Council and People’s Committee of Gia Lâm District, told Dân Trí that in 2009, a French company visited Văn Đức Commune to study and plan construction of a water supply station. In 2012, due to changes in the company’s management board, the project was halted.

Early last year, another investor proposed building the station. It has submitted documents to Hà Nội’s Department of Planning and Investment and is awaiting responses from municipal authorities.

“The district’s authorities are in favour of the project and will create favourable conditions in terms of land and procedures for investors,” he said.

Gia Lâm District has 22 communes, only 17 of which have access to clean water, so far. The aim is to bring clean water to all communes by 2019.

If the water supply station project in Văn Đức Commune is approved, construction will start in the middle of this year, and if the schedule is adhered to, residents will have access to clean water nine months after construction, he said.

Lê Thị Thanh Huyền, representative of Hà Nội’s Department of Planning and Investment, said the department has received documents for a water supply station in the commune, adding that it would assess the project and submit it to the city’s People’s Committee for approval.

Huyền said there was an overlap of agricultural land, roads and the flood irrigation corridor in the land lot where the water supply station is meant to be located. The investor and relevant authorised agencies would have to study the issue to propose solutions.

According to Nguyễn Đức Chung, chairman of Hà Nội’s People’s Committee, the city aims to bring clean water to all residents by 2020. — VNS