A free clean water supply site for people affected by drought in Bình Thuận Province’s Hàm Tân District last year. — VNA/VNS Photo Nguyễn Thanh

BÌNH THUẬN — The south-central province of Bình Thuận is taking measures to ensure there is adequate water supply during the next dry season for households without tap water.

Many places in Hàm Thuận Bắc, Hàm Tân, Tánh Linh, Đức Linh, and Phú Quý districts face a water shortage during the dry season with some households not having access to water supply, according to the province Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

They have to draw water from open wells and borewells, but groundwater has depleted in recent years and they face water shortages, it said.

In Bình Thuận, one of the country’s driest provinces, the dry season normally lasts between November and April.

To address the shortage, the department has asked the People’s Committee for funds to build water supply facilities.

It plans to dig 39 borewells, buy 414 water containers and build one reservoir and repair another in Tánh Linh District at a cost of VNĐ4.9 billion (US$212,000).

It has also sought the People’s Committee green light to upgrade and repair 26 water supply works in the province at a total cost of VNĐ292 billion ($12.7 million).

The People’s Committee has responded by assigning the Departments of Industry and Trade and Agriculture and Rural Development to review and submit to it the list of planned water supply works.

In areas where the population density is low and laying water pipes is not efficient, the People’s Committee has instructed local authorities to encourage households to use water thriftily.

They have also been told to help households get loans on easy terms to build or buy water containers and dig ponds.

It has instructed the province management board of agriculture and rural development projects to speed up work to build water supply works.

The province has 62 such works now in rural areas with a capacity to supply 84,020cu.m of water a day, benefiting 52.8 per cent of the rural population, it added. — VNS