12 water resources planning objectives until 2023 in Vietnam

12 water resources planning objectives until 2023 in Vietnam (Internet image)

On December 27, 2023, the Prime Minister issued Decision 1622/QD-TTg approving the Water Resources Planning for the period 2021–2030, with a vision to 2050.

The Prime Minister has set the following objectives for water resource planning until 2023:

12 water resources planning objectives until 2023 in Vietnam

Specifically, the water resources planning objectives until 2023 are as follows:

(1) Regulating and distributing water resources fairly and reasonably among sectors, localities, and water exploiters and users
according to the integrated planning of inter-provincial river basins, ensuring economic development and social security strategies.

(2) By 2025, 100% of large and important river basins will have integrated plans for inter-provincial river basins.

(3) Ensuring water sources contributes to increasing the rate of clean water use for domestic purposes by urban residents to 95%–100%, and 65% of the rural population has access to clean water.

(4) Basic control of 90% of water exploitation and use activities; improve efficiency and capacity to exploit and use water and minimize water loss in the irrigation works system; Reduce water loss rate in water supply activities to 10%.

(5) Effectively overcome drought and water shortage in the dry season in river basins and areas with difficulty accessing water sources, especially the South Central regions, Central Highlands, Mekong Delta, remote areas and islands.

(6) Protect, control, prevent, and minimize the increase in degradation, depletion, and pollution of water resources, striving to collect and treat wastewater up to standards by 2030 and technical regulations before being discharged into the environment, reaching 30% of the total wastewater volume in urban areas of type II and above and 10% in urban areas of type V and above.

(7) Improve and restore important water sources that are degraded, depleted, or polluted, with priority given to river sections flowing through concentrated residential areas, water sources play an important role in domestic water supply and socio-economic development activities towards socialization, especially on the main streams of the Red River, Ca River, and Vu Gia-Thu Bon River.
and Ba River.

(8) Complete the delineation and announcement of restricted areas for groundwater exploitation; Ponds, lakes, and lagoons must not be leveled. Prevent and combat subsidence due to underground water exploitation.

(9) Complete the establishment and announcement of water resource protection corridors, ensure flow circulation, prevent and combat landslides and river bank landslides, and minimize harmful effects caused by water.

(10) Protect water sources related to religious and belief activities with high value for biodiversity and cultural preservation.

(11) Raise the level of national water resource security in the group of countries that effectively ensure water resource security in Southeast Asia.

(12) Water sector governance based on digital technology, meeting the requirements of integrated water resources management by river basins and adaptation to climate change.

Scope of water resources planning for the period 2021–2030, vision to 2050 in Vietnam

The scope of water resources planning for the period 2021–2030, with a vision to 2050 is determined as follows:

- Socio-economic development regions:

+ Northern midland and mountainous region: includes 14 Northern midland and mountainous provinces in the upper and middle reaches of the Red River-Thai Binh river basin (about 79% of the region's area), Bang Giang-Ky Cung river basin (about 12% of the region's area), and part of the upper Ma River basin (about 9% of the region's area).

+ Red River Delta region: includes 11 provinces and cities in the Red River Delta, belonging to the downstream of the Red River-Thai Binh basin (about 86% of the region's area) and belonging to independent rivers along the coast of Quang Ninh (about 14% of the area).

+ North Central region and Central coastal region: includes 14 central provinces in the basins of Ma river, Ca river, Huong river, Vu Gia-Thu Bon, Tra Khuc river, Kon-Ha Thanh, coastal rivers from Quang Binh to Binh Thuan (about 86% of the region's area), and part of the lower Ba and Dong Nai river basins (about 14% of the region's area).

+ Central Highlands region: includes 5 provinces (Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Dak Lak, Dak Nong, and Lam Dong) in the Se San and Srepok river basins (about 57% of the region's area), the upper part of the Dong Nai river basin (about 21% of the region's area), and the upper part of the Ba river basin (about 22% of the region's area).

+ Southeast region: includes 6 provinces and cities in the Southeast region, mainly in the Dong Nai river basin (about 92% of the region's area) and the Ray river basin and surrounding areas in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province (accounting for 8% of the region's area).

+ Mekong Delta region: includes 13 provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta, most of which belong to the Mekong River basin (about 93% of the region's area), part of the Dong Nai river basin (about 7% of the region's area).

- River basins include: 13 large river basins (Bang Giang-Ky Cung, Hong-Thai Binh, Ma, Ca, Huong, Vu Gia-Thu Bon, Tra Khuc, Kon-Ha Thanh, Ba, Se San, Srepok, Dong Nai, and Mekong), a group of coastal river basins on the territory of Vietnam.

- Islands: Van Don, Bach Long Vi, Cat Ba, Ly Son, Phu Quy, Con Dao, and Phu Quoc. Hoang Sa archipelago, Truong Sa archipelago, and other small islands are researched and implemented in specialized technical plans and provincial plans.

More details can be found in Decision 1622/QD-TTg takes effect from the date of signing.

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