On February 28, at the Government Headquarters, Central Party Committee member and Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha chaired a meeting to give opinions on the draft Law on Water Supply and Drainage.
According to the report of the Ministry of Construction, currently, in the urban area, there are about 250 water supply enterprises, operating over 1,000 water plants; the total capacity of water supply plants is about 13.2 million m3/day and night. The rate of urban residents provided with clean water is 94%.
The rate of clean water loss and loss is 15.5%. Rural areas have about 18,000 centralized rural clean water supply works, 10 million household-scale water supply works.
The urban drainage system is mainly a general drainage system. By December 2024, there were 83 urban wastewater treatment plants nationwide operating in more than 50 urban areas, with a total designed capacity of about 2.064 million m3/day and an actual capacity of about 1.063 million m3/day.
The average urban wastewater collection and treatment rate is 18% of the total amount of wastewater generated. For rural areas, most of the domestic and production wastewater is discharged directly into the environment.
Currently, the highest law on water supply and drainage is the decree, which has not met the development needs of the water supply and drainage industry.
The content of water supply and drainage planning in regional and provincial planning is only orientational, not specifically regulated, making it difficult to establish and implement investment in the construction of large-scale water supply and drainage projects with regional connectivity; many urban areas are flooded due to overloaded or unsynchronized drainage systems.
Concluding the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha emphasized the need to innovate the thinking of law making, including the Law on Water Supply and Drainage, in the direction of both a synchronous, comprehensive, detailed and specific approach to solve practical problems.
Clarify the relationship between the Law on Water Supply and Drainage and other laws such as urban and rural development planning, water resources, environmental protection, irrigation, public investment, prices, taxes, etc. to ensure no conflict or overlap.
The Ministry of Construction must continue reviewing mechanisms and policies related to water supply and drainage in issued laws, pointing out shortcomings and limitations in the implementation process, thereby identifying specific and specific issues in the field of water supply and drainage that other laws cannot solve.
The Deputy Prime Minister stated that clean water is also an essential and important commodity that the State is responsible for managing, ensuring people have fair, complete and safe access.
Businesses can invest in water supply systems to provide to customers who need to use water with higher standards at self-agreed prices.
The draft Law needs to be concise and specific, focusing on the field of water supply and drainage; clearly stipulate issues related to the responsibility of the State, security and safety issues of water resources, water supply and drainage systems, water quality... and access by region and river basin, not by administrative boundary.
"What is clear, institutionalize into detailed policies right in the law, and at the same time have some major orientations for unclear issues that cannot be fully forecasted and evaluated," the Deputy Prime Minister noted.
