Vietnam Firm Sawaco Proposes Major Water Reservoir

Saigon Water Corporation (Sawaco) has written to the city government proposing building a water reservoir with a capacity of 1.35 million cubic meters on 23 hectares in the outlying district of Cu Chi in 2016-2017. Sawaco said the city now lacks back-up crude water resources and water treatment facilities. Therefore, the large-scale reservoir could ensure a sufficient supply of crude water for Tan Hiep water plant in one to three days when salinity and pollution affect the quality of water in the Saigon River. Crude water reservoirs have been built in some countries like the Netherlands and Japan, according to Sawaco. To adapt to climate change, pollution and salinity intrusion, the city needs to build the reservoir to secure water supply for millions of citizens. Currently, the combined daily capacity of six operational water plants in the city is 2.1 million cubic meters. Four of them get crude water from the Dong Nai River and the remainder use water from the Saigon River. However, the latest report of Sawaco says that water pollution in Saigon and Dong Nai rivers has worsened. Particularly, organic, ammonium and microbial indicators have exceeded the permissible levels in the Saigon River. Besides, water shortage and salinity caused by climate change have worsened in recent times. The El Nino phenomenon has affected the city’s water supply system since the beginning of this year and some water plants stopped taking crude water from the Saigon River when salinity was beyond permissible levels. Nguyen Van Dam, director of the HCMC Irrigation Management Exploitation and Service Company, said all water flowing into the rivers in HCMC originate in other provinces. The city needs a reservoir to adapt to climate change. The city often gets water from Dau Tieng Lake in the upstream of the Saigon River for local water treatment plants. However, due to severe drought at present, the volume of water in Dau Tieng is only 930 million cubic meters, 76% of the average in previous years. The volume is 80% at Tri An reservoir in the upstream of the Dong Nai River. (http://english.thesaigontimes.vn/ Mar 29)