VietNamNet Bridge – Clean water shortages could occur in HCM City if pumping stations on Sai Gon and Dong Nai rivers are closed.


HTML clipboard Clean water being produced from river water for households in HCM City. Salt water has intruded further into rivers, leading to a shortage of potable water. (Photo: VNS)
Salt water has intruded further into these rivers, a manager from the city's clean water supplier has said.


Vo Quang Chau, the deputy general director of Sai Gon Water Supply Co (SAWACO), said operation of the Tan Hiep Water Plant on Sai Gon River and Thu Duc Water Plant on Dong Nai River could be suspended because salinity at pumping stations of these water plants was very high.


"If salinity exceeds the treatment capacity of the water plants, a shortage of a clean water supply cannot be avoided," said Chau.


He said salinity at these pumping stations had been on the rise as salt water had intruded further into these rivers while the dry season was expected to arrive in late April.


In January, the salinity at Tan Hiep Water Plant's Hoa Phu pumping station, which supplies HCM City residents with 300,000 cubic metres of clean water per day, reached 270mg per litre, compared with the under 250mg per litre accepted by the Vietnamese standards.


On February 7, the salinity at Hoa An Pumping Station of Thu Duc Water Plant amounted to 260mg per litre, 10 times higher than usual.


The salinity at the pumping station of the Binh An Water Plant, a Build-Operate-Transfer project which supplies HCM City with 100,000cu.m of clean water per day, reached 1,000mg per litres once, four times higher than the acceptable rate.


Such a high salinity, which was beyond the BOT Binh An treatment capacity, has forced BOT Binh An Water Plant to suspend operation several times.


The intrusion of salinity into Sai Gon and Dong Nai rivers has greatly affected the operation of water plants on these rivers.

Chau said the situation could worsen in the following months, the dry season of the year. To lower the salinity, SAWACO has used water discharged from Dau Tieng Reservoir.


SAWACO has also agreed with Tri An Hydro-power Co on a plan to increase water discharged from Tri An Reservoir to reduce salinity at Hoa An Pumping Station of Thu Duc Water Plant.


As the water reserve in Tri An Reservoir is 2.2 billion cubic metres lower than the same period last year, the reservoir is now discharging only 130 cubic metres of water per second, much lower than the maximum rate of 170 cubic metres per second.

The current discharge rate cannot help drive back salt water in Dong Nai River.


VietNamNet/Viet Nam News