Keynote Speech by Dr. Nguyen Thai Lai – Vice Minister of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment at the Final Workshop of the Project “Improvement of Groundwater in Vietnam” (National Center for Water Resources Planning and Investigation)

Dear Ms. Frick – First Secretary of German Embassy to Vietnam
Dear Dr. Arne Hoffmann-Rothe – Head of the Unit for International Cooperation for Asia and Oceania, BGR
Dear Dr. Tong Ngoc Thanh – General Director of National Center for Water Resources Planning and Investigation
Dear Mr. Jens Boehme – Project Leader of IGPVN, BGR
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the leaders from MONRE, I would like to welcome and appreciate you to attend this Final Workshop of the Project “Improvement of Groundwater Protection in Vietnam” – IGPVN. This is a ODA Technical Cooperation Project funded by the German Government to Vietnam.

Today, the Center for Water Resources Planning and Investigation organizes the final workshop to review the Project results after almost 5 years of implementation.

Ladies and gentlemen.

As you know, groundwater has become the main supply for human use and for the entire society. However the over-exploitation and over use of groundwater has been abundant and common practices which caused exhaustion and brought about negative impacts on the environment. Such consequences are groundwater level decline, land subsidence, pollution, salt water intrusion…   The causes are various including population growth, urbanization which has been blooming in all over the country and the increasingly economic activities. Under this background, the IGPVN Project has been initiated by the MONRE and the BMZ since 25^th June 2009. The project objective has been to improve the capacity for groundwater investigation, planning and management in the urban areas of Vietnam. The major executive partners include the National Center for Water Resources Planning and Investigation (NAWAPI), Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) and the Provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment of 5 provinces namely Nam Dinh, Ha Nam, Ha Noi, Quang Ngai and Soc Trang.

During its 5-year operation, the project has obtained the major results as follows:

– Organizing several trainings (in Vietnam and abroad) on English language and professional skills to strengthen the capacity for the staffs of NAWAPI, its sub-ordinate bodies and the selected DONREs;

– Equipping means of transport and equipment to serve for project activities as well as for NAWAPI and DONRE professional tasks;

– Supporting to establish some Technical Guidelines on groundwater management, groundwater planning and investigation;

– Taking part in the World Water Day events in Vietnam; carrying out awareness raising campaigns for the community on groundwater protection in the project’s provinces;

– Building and reactivating the groundwater monitoring networks and establishing groundwater numerical models as tools for groundwater management and observation in the several selected provinces;

It can be said that the above activities and results have been oriented to reach the initial goals that is to strengthen the capacity for groundwater planning, investigation and management and partly contribute to minimize groundwater decline in Vietnam. I believe these results have been proactively contributing to improve the capacity in integrated groundwater managerial capacity as well as bringing practical benefits to the local people living in the selected provinces.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On this occasion, let me express on behalf of the MONRE leaders the gratitude to the Federal Government of Germany, the Federal Ministry of  Economic Development and Cooperation, Germany, Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) and their experts who have sponsored and cooperated with us to realize the project successfully. Thank you the local authorities who have helped and created favorable conditions and cooperated during the implementation of the project. I also would like to request the National Center for Water Resources Planning and Investigation, the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources and the DONREs in the project areas continue to cooperate and multiply these initial achieved results to improve the integrated water resources managerial capacity, contributing to minimize the depression of groundwater in their localities.