VN to introduce national program on water protection
VGP - The Vietnamese Government is drafting a national program, in a resolute effort, to raise the efficiency of management, protection and use of water resources.
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Việt Nam has to adopt the program because it is among the most vulnerable countries to impacts of the global climate change and recent abnormal change of water resources.
The use, management and protection of water resources have not been governed by legal regulations. Many rivers are seriously contaminated due to improper use or even overexploitation and discharge of untreated waste and water from industrial sites.
Moreover, Việt Nam is not endowed with abundant water as 70% of its water come from foreign sources and the water flows significantly differ season from season.
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Eight targets of the program: * Completing a legal framework on water management, protection and use; * Developing and deploying the planning scheme for water allocation in large river basins and reservoirs; * Protecting water resources and aquatic organisms; * Assessing water resources at national scale and in key economic regions; * Building a system of water observatory and supervision; * Developing a national database and information system of water resources; * Consolidating water management capacity; * Improving people’s awareness of water protection and use. |
Statistics show that eight out of Việt Nam’s 13 large rivers are part of the world’s ones and well over 200 others (accounting for 8% of the country’s river network) are cross-border rivers.
At an international seminar on the topic held on Tuesday in Hà Nội, Vietnamese competent agencies introduced eight master solutions of the “National Goal Program on improving the efficiency of management, protection, and use of water resources.”
The program will be deployed in the basins of 13 big rivers nationwide in the period of 2010-2020. Some 60% of the VND 6,000-billion project will be mobilized from foreign sources.
The solutions overwhelms with finance, science-technology, and international cooperation.
The State will especially issues mechanisms and policies on tax exemption and business preferences to encourage wider public participation in protecting water resources and coping with abnormal water change.
A concrete mechanism will also be developed to cement cooperation with international sponsors in science and technology transfer and capacity-building; obtain specific agreements with neighboring countries which share the same rivers.
Making his remarks at the event, Deputy PM Hoàng Trung Hải asked the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) to collect the participants’ comments to perfect the program which must cover specific deadline and feasible solutions.
By Hải Minh
