HCM City has issued a plan to stop the exploitation of groundwater. Photo: tuoitre.vn

HCM CITY—The People's Committee of HCM City has issued a plan to provide clean water to all residents and stop the exploitation of groundwater.

The city Department of Natural Resources and Environment has approved a plan to restrict groundwater exploitation in 2021, while the city People's Committee has set a roadmap to 2023 with a maximum of 150,000cu.m of groundwater exploited each day.

The plan aims to reduce groundwater exploitation by 16,650cu.m per day this year. This includes 8,000cu.m per day for households, 4,650cu.m per day for industrial production, and 4,000cu.m per day for the State-run Sài Gòn Water Supply Corporation (Sawaco).

To achieve the goal, the department will stop licensing 74 groundwater exploitation works that belong to companies, industrial parks and export processing zones, and will encourage households to fill up wells in areas where clean tap water is accessible. Costs for filling up wells will be covered by the city’s water sector.

Groundwater can be harmful to health because of dangerous chemicals and wastewater.

To protect residents’ health, city authorities said that clean, safe water would continue to be supplied to all households in every district.

According to Sawaco, under its plan for 2020-2025, the city aims to increase the average supply of clean water per capita per day by 165 litres and reduce the tap water leakage rate to 15 per cent.

The overexploitation of groundwater has changed underground water levels and the geological structure.

The city has an average subsidence rate of 4cm a year, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. Land subsidence of 5-10mm has occurred in districts Bình Chánh, Bình Tân, Thủ Đức and Nhà Bè and districts 2, 7, 8 and 12. VNS