Also, a water supply plant project has just kicked off and will only become operational by 2021.

Within one month, from May 30 to July 4, 2020, Dawaco, the water supply company, announced suspension of water supply, ten times for 1-2 days each time. The water outages occurred in many different districts and for different reasons.

Some analysts said the water supply was cut off altenately to store water in the face of an anticipated water shortage.

According to the Central Meteorological and Hydrometeorology Station, in the 2020 dry season, the flow capacity of Vu Gia - Thu Bon river system will be 40-90 percent less, with the average water level lower than that in many years.

It is highly possible that drought, water shortage and saline intrusion will worsen. The saline intrusion at river months is likely to come earlier and the level is predicted to be the same or higher level than 2019.

According to Dawaco, the salinity of Cau Do River water at Cau Do Water Plant’s inlet of raw water soared to 5,793mg/l on some days, which is 19 times higher than the permitted standard, the highest this year and higher than that of the same period last year (5,109 mg/l).

According to Dawaco, the salinity of Cau Do River water at Cau Do Water Plant’s inlet of raw water soared to 5,793mg/l on some days, which is 19 times higher than the permitted standard, the highest this year and higher than that of the same period last year (5,109 mg/l).

Experts said the saline intrusion and water shortage in Da Nang began in 2017 and the situation has not improved since then. In some days in August 2019, Da Nang lacked 100,000 cubic meters of domestic water (it needs 300,000 cubic meters).

Earlier this year, the municipal authorities released Plan No 3076 on water storage to cope with the drought and saline intrusion. The leaders of the city instructed agencies to build two saltwater prevention dams.

Meanwhile, Dawaco has proposed raising the water retail price to get more money for water projects which have been going slowly, partially because of Covid-19.

According to Ho Huong, general director of Dawaco, the retail domestic water price, applied since 2017, is VND6,100 per cubic meter, which is low compared with other cities under the central administration.

In November 2019, the HCM City People’s Committee set new prices for domestic water in the city, ranging from VND5,600 per cubic meter to VND12,100.

In Can Tho City, the domestic water price is VND5,500-8,700 per cubic meters, which is ch became valid in March 2019.

Le Ha

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