On January 9, Deputy Minister of Justice Tran Tien Dung and Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Tuong Van chaired a meeting to review the draft Law on Water Supply and Drainage.
Reporting at the meeting, the representative of the Ministry of Construction said that currently, the issue of regulating clean water supply and drainage activities (including rainwater drainage, wastewater drainage and wastewater treatment) has not been regulated in current legal documents; it is only regulated in sub-law documents such as Decrees (direct regulations).
However, the planning of water supply and drainage is incomplete, not synchronous, and the forecast quality is limited, causing difficulties in orienting and investing in the construction and development of water supply and drainage systems;
Investment activities in water supply and drainage development have not met the requirements of socio-economic development and environmental protection; the issuance of clean water prices has encountered many difficulties, the price of drainage and wastewater treatment services is still low, limiting the mobilization of investment resources; state management of water supply and drainage is still overlapping and inconsistent... Therefore, the development of the Law on Water Supply and Drainage is extremely necessary.
Deputy Minister of Construction Nguyen Tuong Van affirmed that he will accept comments from delegates to complete the draft Law on Water Supply and Drainage.
Deputy Minister Nguyen Tuong Van emphasized that this is a difficult law, directly related to people and businesses, and is a new law in the context of other related laws that have been issued.
Mr. Van also explained more clearly the viewpoints in the following contents: the issue of planning for water supply and drainage; the mechanism to attract investment in the field of water supply and drainage; the issue of water prices; the issue of water supply, drainage, wastewater treatment in industrial parks, export processing zones and the issue of building information systems and databases for water supply and drainage.
Concluding the meeting, Deputy Minister of Justice Tran Tien Dung emphasized that this is a very important draft law, affecting every citizen, every business, and water security.
Therefore, Deputy Minister Tran Tien Dung suggested focusing on building a special mechanism to attract investment in water supply and drainage in remote, isolated and disadvantaged areas, strongly developing water supply and drainage systems for these areas and ensuring that vulnerable people in society have access to clean water.
At the same time, it is necessary to develop a mechanism to attract investment in wastewater treatment; add some regulations related to propaganda, encouragement of saving and protecting water resources; simplify procedures related to planning the development of water supply and drainage systems.
