Vietnam city residents to get more clean water HANOI - Viet Nam's water supply authorities are hoping to provide urban dwellers with 120 litres to 150 litres of water a day each and residents of big cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Hai Phong with 180 litres to 200 litres a day each by 2020. Despite considerable work in the water supply area, only 60 per cent of urban residents currently receive clean water from treatment plants. They are supplied with an average of only about 60 litres a day each. Viet Nam has about 200 water plants which can supply a combined capacity of 3 million cu.m a day. Twelve towns are seeking investments to build treatment to supply clean water to their residents, Deputy Minister for Construction Nguyen Tan Van told a seminar on Human Resources Development of Viet Nam's Water Supply Sector in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday. With Official Development Assistance (ODA) loans from donors and institutions such as the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank, Viet Nam has invested thousands of million of dollars in water treatment plants which supply clean water to cities and provincial towns across the country. However, leakage from the worn-out distribution networks means that 50 per cent of the water from treatment plants is lost. Poor management has also affected the performance of the water supply sector, he said. To improve water supply, especially in urban areas, the Ministry of Construction has initiated a number of provincial town water supply projects in recent years. When completed, the country's third major water supply project will provide 300,000 people in five provincial towns with clean water and sanitation facilities. The five towns to be covered by the Third Provincial Towns Water Supply Project are Phu Yen (Phu Yen Province), Phan Rang (Ninh Thuan Province), Thu Dau Mot (Binh Duong Province), Tay Ninh (Tay Ninh Province) and Rach Gia (Kien Giang Province). The project was initiated following the implementation of the Second Provincial Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Project (1997-2002) and the First Provincial Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Project (1997-2001). The Second Provincial Towns Water Supply Project will supply more than a million people from the seven provincial towns of Tuyen Quang, Ninh Binh, Vinh, Dong Hoi (Quang Binh Province), Dong Ha (Quang Tri Province), Quy Nhon (Binh Dinh Province) and Ben Tre with clean water. The project requires investment of US$92 million including a $69-million ODA loan from ADB. The First Provincial Towns Water Supply Project is to provide water supply and sanitation facilities to provincial towns of Thai Nguyen, Thuan Hai, Pleiku, Nha Trang and Phan Thiet. The project requires an investment of $82 million including an ODA loan of $66 million from the ADB, according to Construction officials To meet their stated target of supplying 200 litres of water a day for urban residents by 2020, supply authorities will take other initiatives including skills training for water supply workers. Better trained staff will help the sector to effectively utilise the huge investments earmarked for the country's water supply projects. "Otherwise we will let water waste while large water supply projects will experience deterioration," Van told the seminar. With funding from the Japanese government, the Ministry of Construction has established the Water Sector Personnel Training Centre at the Construction College No. 2 in Ho Chi Minh City. The project was designed to improve the training capabilities of the college in the field of water management which will, in turn, raise the level of management in water plants in southern provinces of Viet Nam. The Japanese Government has sent 15 experts to Ho Chi Minh City and provided machinery, equipment and other materials for the project. Their Vietnamese counterparts are sent to Japan for training. The first stage of the three-year project will focus on courses on water supply planning, water supply management and water losses prevention, Katsumi Shibanuma, a Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) expert, said. Vietnam News Agency - March 9, 2000.