IGPVN mission to Soc Trang and Ca Mau Provinces in August 2018

On August from 15 to 17, the delegation of the IGPVN project led by its Project Team Leader – Mr. Andreas Renck – had a discussion with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DONRE) of Soc Trang and Ca Mau, on the deployment of project tasks in the two provinces. During the talks, Mr. Andreas Renck introduced to the leaders of DONREs about the new human resources of the IGPVN project, the results achieved in the two provinces in the previous phase and the main objectives of this phase: 1. Develop and implement guidelines on the implementation of laws, decrees, circulars… in the field of groundwater in the province; 2. Background information on groundwater resources and management; 3. Management and planning of groundwater resources; 4. Strengthening communication and awareness. Thereby, he expects the DONREs to contribute their ideas in order to develop concrete and effective objectives of the project in the two provinces.

During the meeting, representatives of the two DONREs briefly introduced the status of exploitation and management of groundwater resources in their provinces and the tough issues.
In Soc Trang Province, most of the water used for drinking water is groundwater. Groundwater resources in the provinces are tending to exhaust due to over-exploitation and wasteful use and uncontrolled exploitation at household scale. The leaders of Soc Trang province want to manage effectively and use groundwater resources sustainably for living and economic development. However, they are embarrassed about solutions and financial sources in the near future. In order to have solutions to reduce the load for groundwater extraction, they are planning to use 2000 ha of agricultural lands for artificial freshwater reservoirs to supply water and implement groundwater artificial recharge.
In Ca Mau Province, the problems are almost similar to Soc Trang Province. Almost 100% of water for daily life and production in Ca Mau Province are exploited by groundwater. Groundwater resources are degraded due to over-exploitation while the awareness of community in saving and protecting groundwater is not high. Leaders of Ca Mau’s DONRE want to implement on-site solutions to reduce the load for groundwater exploitation by using rainwater harvesting system for daily living and raising public awareness groundwater saving and protection.
At the end of the discussion, the leaders of DONRE in Soc Trang and Ca Mau provinces have proposed some specific tasks to implement the objectives of the project as follows: 1. Strengthening capacity for DONRE staff in groundwater monitoring, surveillance of groundwater exploitation, using the groundwater monitoring data for management; 2. Raising public awareness on groundwater saving and protection; 3. Building the database system for water resources management; 4. Developing technical guidelines for the implementation of legislation related to water resources; 5. Pilot models of rainwater harvesting for daily living.
After the discussion with the Soc Trang and Ca Mau DONREs, the IGPVN delegation visited some sites in two provinces as:
– My Tu Water Supply Station belongs to Soc Trang Water Supply Joint Stock Company. Here IGPVN experts visited the water supply station and the location of the extraction well of the station.
– Rainwater harvesting system for domestic water supply in a high school in Soc Trang province.
– Water Supply Station and Water Supply Plant belong Ca Mau Water Supply Joint Stock Company.