Hanoi needs to improve its management of underground water as a
large amount of the resource is being exploited without long-lasting
state control procedures in place, which can result in water
degradation.
According to the Department of Water
Resource Management under the Ministry of Natural Resources and
Environment (MoNRE), the city’s underground water reserves are around
8.4 million cubic metres per day.
Hanoi ’s
underground water is being exploited on both large- and small-scale,
with around 1.8 million cubic metres pumped per day. However, only 42.9
and 2.3 percent of the large-scale and small-scale wells actually
acquired a licence, respectively.
A large number of
small-scale wells are using rudimentary water treatment technologies,
as do 800,000 small wells drilled in rural areas, posing great risks of
polluting the underground water sources. .
Experts
are calling on Hanoi to tighten control of the exploitation of
underground water in line with the Law on Water Resource, and create
plans to explore and exploit the resource effectively.-VNA