Ha Long City: Investing in clean water system for highland communes

Implementing Resolution No. 77-NQ/TU and 78-NQ/TU of the Standing Committee of the Ha Long City Party Committee on prioritizing resources, exploiting potentials, promoting socio-economic development of communes until 2025, with a vision to 2030, in which many communes in mountainous, remote, isolated and ethnic minority areas in the area have received attention and allocated budget for investment in clean water supply projects. Up to now, the projects have been approved by the city, allocated capital, completed the selection of contractors and are in the process of preparing design documents for construction drawings, and will soon be put into implementation in the third quarter of 2024.

Domestic water is drawn from the stream by the people of Tan Oc 2 village, Dong Son commune.

Ha Long City has 33 communes and wards, of which the northern area of the city has 12 communes and wards that are rural and mountainous areas, where people have difficulty accessing clean water services.

For example, Dong Son commune, one of the mountainous communes of Ha Long city with nearly 3,200 people, of which over 98% are ethnic minorities, 100% of the people here use domestic water taken directly from the stream to each family. This water source does not meet the criteria for domestic water use, besides, in some dry months of the year, the water source from the stream shows signs of degradation and depletion, leading to a lack of water supply for the daily life of the people in the area.

Faced with this situation, Ha Long City has approved the project to build a centralized clean water supply system for the people of Dong Son commune with a total investment of over 30 billion VND, ensuring sufficient flow and quality, meeting the needs of daily life and production with a capacity of ^500m3 /day and night, including the following items: Spillway for water intake; power supply to the treatment area; clean water treatment and supply area, essential technical infrastructure; D160-D90 distribution pipeline system of about 4,000m; synchronous construction of service pipelines from D75 to D25 combined with renovation of the existing water supply network on the basis of maintenance, upkeep, and upgrading to ensure capacity and avoid loss. With the immediate goal of ensuring water supply for households in the central area of about 400 households, increasing the rate of households using clean water to 3.5%.

According to Ms. Ly Thi Hien, Tan Oc 2 village, Dong Son commune, the people in the village were very happy and excited after knowing that the city had a policy to invest in a project to provide clean water for the people in the commune. Because this is a long-standing desire of the people here. Therefore, we hope that the project will be implemented soon so that people can have clean water to use to ensure their health and daily life.

Ha Long City Construction Investment Project Management Board coordinated with local authorities to survey the construction area of the centralized water supply project.

In Ky Thuong, the most difficult mountainous commune of Ha Long City, the city has also approved a centralized clean water supply project with a total investment of nearly 24 billion VND. Accordingly, a new centralized clean water supply system with sufficient flow and quality assurance to meet the needs of daily life and production with a capacity of ^300m3 /day and night will be built here. The specific items implemented are the water supply pipeline network; treatment cluster; construction of a distribution pipeline D160-D90 about 3,000m; synchronous construction of a service pipeline from D75 to D25 to supply water to about 109 households. The rate of households using clean water that meets standards after investment increased to 0.95%.

For low-lying communes such as Son Duong, Dong Lam, Vu Oai, Hoa Binh, Dan Chu, Quang La, Bang Ca and Tan Dan, connections will be made and investment will be made in the construction of a distribution pipeline network, D75-D25 service pipelines and booster pumping stations, and pressure tanks directly connected from Dong Ho and Hoanh Bo water plants with a total investment of over 174 billion VND.

Mr. Dinh Van Luong, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Dan Chu Commune, said: Upon receiving the city's policy, the commune promptly led and directed sectors and organizations to focus on disseminating and instructing people on the significance of using clean water, while closely coordinating with the City Construction Investment Project Management Board to make plans and seek people's opinions. Up to now, 100% of the people in the commune have agreed with this policy.

Mr. Ha Huu Trong, Deputy Director of the Ha Long City Construction Investment Project Management Board, said: Currently, the unit is advising the city to hire consultants to carry out construction drawings. In August and September, we will deploy the above clean water projects. To ensure the progress of putting the project into use in the first quarter of 2025, we hope that the commune authorities and people will create favorable conditions to hand over the site for early implementation of construction, ensuring that by 2025, the rate of rural households using clean water according to standards will reach 85%.

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