| Popis: |
Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is situated on the bank of the Saigon River in the southern part of Vietnam. The city with an area of 2,095 km2 is home to more than 7.95 million residents in 2014. The metropolitan area is the most important economic center in Vietnam, contributing approximately 20% of the country’s gross domestic product. Water supply in the city is derived from both surface and groundwater sources. Until now, groundwater is playing an important role to meet water demand of the city. In 2012, the total amount of water supply in HCMC was about 1.5 MCM/d, of which 44.67% was produced from groundwater. It is planned to reduce the amount of groundwater abstraction for water supply to 0.44 MCM/d (or 15.5% of the total water demand) by 2015 and to 0.10 MCM/d (or 2.7% of the total water demand) by 2020. High industrialization and urbanization resulted in the quick increase of water demands. Surface water production or development so far have not been able to meet the increasing demands. Besides, no-cost and uncontrolled abstraction has significantly increased rates and volumes of groundwater pumping in the HCMC. Groundwater is under threat due to salt-water intrusion, reduction of groundwater levels, and contamination. The excessive groundwater abstraction has also led to the land subsidence at some areas in the HCMC. The subsidence at the rate of few centimeters per year is measured at heavy pumped groundwater stations. This case study aims at synthesizing the situation of groundwater environment of HCMC to better understand the origin of stresses, current state, expected impacts, and responses needed to restore the healthy groundwater environment. |
