A seminar under the second phase of an underground water project took
place in Hanoi on February 26 to seek measures for better water
resource management that can lead to sustainable development.
The event, co-hosted by the Centre for Planning and Inspection for
Water Resources under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment,
and the Coordinating Committee for GeoScience Programmes in East and
Southeast Asia (CCOP), saw the participation of 11 nations including
Japan , China , the Republic of Korea , Thailand , Cambodia ,
Indonesia , Malaysia , the Philippines , Papua New Guinea ,
Timor-Leste and Vietnam .
The underground water
project is part of CCOP’s activities, which aims to increase member
nations’ capacity in water resource management as well as information
sharing and cooperation in this field.
The second
phase of the project, which began in February, 2010 and is due to
complete in March, 2013, aims to supplement current hydro-geological
maps with more information regarding temperature and water quality.
Many reports presented at the seminar provided useful experience for
Vietnam in dealing with several critical issues, such as land
subsidence and saltwater intrusion. Countries’ experiences and the
current situation of water resource management, as well as measures to
deal with the problem were also discussed.
Phase one
of the project, with the participation of nine countries, focused on
making a general evaluation of underground water resources. It was
completed in March, 2009.-VNA