LookAtVietnam – The HCM City Department of Natural Resources and Environment has prohibited factories based in the Le Minh Xuan Industrial Park from drawing ground water.

Workers install pipes in HCM City. The city plans to deliver water by pipe to 90 per cent of residents by 2010.

A recent inspection found eight factories in Le Minh Xuan exploiting ground water without permission, he said.

The department had ordered them to stop using their wells and fill them up by this month and asked the Binh Chanh Construction Investment Shareholding Company to supply enough water for companies in the park.

A few years ago it had informed all factories in IPs and EPZs that after June 2007 it would no longer permit them to use ground water, except in special cases where they are not supplied enough by IP and EPZ developers, Phuoc said.

Ground sucked dry

Phuoc said though the city had tried to reduce the exploitation of ground water in recent years, the practice continued unhindered.

Excessive and improper exploitation also caused land to sink and contamination of ground water by salt water, he said.

Last year around 550,000cu.m of water was drawn from under the ground every day while the accretion to the water table was less than 200,000 cu.m, according to the department. To reduce the use of ground water, the city People’s Committee plans to supply water through pipes in areas that are yet to get it, hoping to have 90 per cent of the population covered by 2010.

The city targets reducing ground water exploitation to 100,000 cu.m a day by then.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News