VietNamNet Bridge – Despite the strict regulations on protecting water sources, underground water is still getting depleted and polluted because of people’s spontaneous activities.

Authorities officials in Tien Giang province have suffered a headache when a lot of local residents dig ponds right on the rice fields for aquaculture. This has led to the sharp fall of the land area for growing rice and caused serious pollution to the water sources, according to Dan Viet.

In Cai Lay district, 170 households have dug ponds on 114 hectares of rice fields, mostly in the communes of Thanh Loc, Phu Cuong, May Thanh Bac and My Phuoc Tay, to breed fish. Especially, the households have created 58 water wells from which they get water for fish farming.

The movement of farming fish was triggered in early 2011, when fish breeder prices escalated continuously, bringing big profits to farmers. The profits from fish farming was so attractive that people, including high ranking officials, also decided to farm fish on the areas reserved for rice fields.

Phan Van Khai, Deputy Secretary of the My Thanh Bac Commune’s Party Committee was one of the pioneers, who used the agriculture land for fish farming. 96 other local households have followed him, digging ponds for fish.

Meanwhile, Secretary of the Phu Cuong Commune’s Party Committee Nguyen Van Nguyen leased 6000 square meters of rice fields to others which have been used for aquaculture.

The leaders of Tien Giang province have been warned that the aquaculture in a large and spontaneous scale would lead to the sharp fall of the rice output in the province, thus threatening the food security in the locality.

Meanwhile, the aquaculture without following scientific procedures would seriously pollute the water environment, which would badly affect the lives and the production activities of the community.

Tran Kim Mai, Deputy Chair of the Tien Giang provincial People’s Committee, has said that the local authorities are determined to keep the area for rice fields stable and prevent any behaviors which may spoil the agriculture production plan.

Mai also said that the provincial authorities have requested the Cai Lay district people’s committee to stop the spontaneous well drilling.

However, Nguyen Minh Hien, Deputy Chair of the Cai Lay district, has admitted that the request may not be followed because of a lot of difficulties.

“I think that farmers would not follow the instruction by the local authorities, because they would have to spend much money to fill in the ponds. Meanwhile, the current regulations do not clearly stipulate how they would be punished, if they do not fulfill the instruction. The district’s local authorities cannot allocate budget for the work,” he explained.

Not only Tien Giang, many other provinces and cities are also facing big problems with the underground water sources. Quang Ninh provincial authorities also still cannot settle the problems despite its big efforts to stop the behaviors to spoiling the water resources.

Thien Nhien has reported that even in Ha Long, Cam Pha areas, which are believed to have the most profuse water reserves; the exploitation capacity has been decreasing. The total capacity in the areas is just between 6000 and 10,000 cubic meters a day.

In HCM City, dwellers in districts 12, Thu Duc and Binh Tan have complained that they do not have clean water to use, because the underground water has become seriously polluted, while they cannot buy clean water from the water supply companies.

C. V