Over 93% of HCM City Residents Accessible to Clean Water

More than 93 percent of residents in Ho Chi Minh City are supplied with clean water, reported by the Department of Transport  at the meeting on clean water supply in the city yesterday. Mr. Nguyen Huu Tin, Vice Chairman of the HCMC People's Committee presided over the meeting which is attended by related agencies and departments and districts' leaders. According to the Department of Transport, one hundred percent of residents in nine of 24 districts are accessible to clean water. It is scheduled by 2014, most residents in seven urban districts will be supplied with clean water, raising the rate of households in the urban areas being accessible to clean water to 96.03 percent. It is expected  that most of residents in districts Thu Duc and Binh Tan would have clean water in the end of the first quarter of 2015. The rate of households being accessible to clean water accordingly increased to 96.33 percent. It is predicted that one hundred percent of households in the city would use clean water in the end of 2015. However, Mr. Tin said that he heard complaints that hundreds of thousands of households in the city's outskirts had to use unhygienic water from canals or alum-contaminated water from wells. In addition, residents in some districts have to pay higher price for water than regulated price set by the Sai Gon Water Supply Corporation (Sawaco), he added. The deputy chairman asked related agencies and departments to figure out how much water being needed to supply to residents in HCM City's outlying districts. Mr Tin said that water suppliers not only focused on installing water pipelines, they should think of many ways to bring clean water to residents. He urged water suppliers and districts' leaders to ensure that all residents in urban and suburban will access to clean water at the same price since 2015. (saigon-gpdaily.com.vn Nov 15)