Voters in Vinh Long proposed that the Government consider decentralizing state management of water supply to the Ministry of Construction to manage urban areas and industrial parks, while the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (now the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment) manages rural areas, leading to inconsistency in the development of orientation, strategy, and technical regulations.
After studying, the Ministry of Construction would like to respond as follows: According to Decree No. 117/2007/ND-CP dated July 11, 2007 on the production, supply and consumption of clean water, the Government assigned the Ministry of Construction to manage urban and industrial park water supply (Clause 2, Article 60) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to manage rural water supply (Clause 3, Article 60).
Decrees No. 33/2025/ND-CP and 35/2025/ND-CP stipulating the functions, tasks and organizational structure of the two Ministries continue to determine the Ministry of Construction to perform state management of the technical infrastructure system for urban water supply and industrial parks; the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment to manage rural domestic water supply. Thus, current law still determines water supply management by urban and rural areas.
The assignment of water supply management by two focal points has arisen some limitations such as: (i) Water supply planning must be integrated into the Provincial Planning and Urban - Rural Planning according to the Planning Law but localities still face difficulties in unifying the content of water supply planning; (ii) The water supply system is developing on a small scale, lacking regional linkages; (iii) Many water supply systems serve urban and rural areas at the same time but must apply two management mechanisms; (iv) Standards, technical regulations, service quality and professional guidance are not synchronous; (v) Decentralization and delegation of authority according to the model of local government at 02 levels are not unified.
The Ministry of Construction respectfully accepts the opinions of voters in Vinh Long province and is taking the lead in reviewing and amending Decree No. 117/2007/ND-CP towards perfecting the unified and interconnected management mechanism between urban and rural water supply; studying the assignment of a unified Ministry to manage state water supply regardless of location.
At the same time, institutionalize this content in the draft Law on Water Supply and Drainage to improve management efficiency and facilitate localities in decentralization and delegation of authority. The Ministry of Construction will report to the Government for consideration in the process of perfecting the institution in the coming time.
