Ensuring water sources in industrial parks and clusters

(Baonghean) - One of the necessary and sufficient conditions for infrastructure of concentrated industrial parks and clusters is electricity and water. However, currently many factories and companies are facing difficulties in clean water sources for production and daily life...

Although it has been in operation for more than 4 years, Sao Vang Fertilizer Factory of Nghe An Agricultural Materials Corporation located in Zone C, Nam Cam Industrial Park (Nghi Loc) still has no clean water to use. For the same period of time, the company has had to buy clean water from Vinh City to serve production and daily life for its staff and workers. Although the company has an underground water system, the water source is salty so it cannot be used but only for watering plants. Mr. Truong Van Hung, Director of the company, said: Lack of clean water is a problem that our company has had to accept for more than 4 years and we do not know when it will be resolved. On average, each day, the company has to buy 3 - 5 cubic meters of water from Vinh City for staff and workers to use. On average, the company has to spend 19-18 million VND per month to buy clean water.

Groundwater source at Haivina Kim Lien Company Limited is contaminated with alum.

Not only economic losses, the lack of clean water is also affecting the production process as well as the lives of 120 officers and employees of the company. Mr. Hung added that many times there is no clean water but the water truck has not arrived yet, so the company's production activities are also affected. The company has reported and reflected this issue many times to the authorities but has not received a specific answer. Therefore, the company hopes that the Provincial People's Committee and the Southeast Economic Zone will soon come up with a solution to implement the project to provide clean water for the factory. It is known that not only Nghe An Agricultural Supplies Company but also many other enterprises in Nam Cam Industrial Park are also suffering from the above situation.

In a similar situation, Haivina Kim Lien Company Limited, located in Nam Giang Industrial Park (Nam Giang Commune, Nam Dan District) is facing difficulties due to lack of clean water. Since the inauguration of the company (March 2012) until now, the clean water pipeline has not reached the company's gate. To have water for use, the company has installed a water filtration system from underground water sources. However, due to the alum-contaminated water, which does not meet standards, this water source cannot serve the needs of eating and drinking but is only for workers' daily activities. Mr. Le Thanh Tinh, Head of the General Affairs Department of the company, said: Although the company has reported this issue to the authorities, there have been no results. Every day, the company has to buy tap water for use. According to Mr. Le Van Son, Chairman of the Trade Union, every day the company has to buy 3 water trucks, each truck is about 5.3m3, on average, every month, the company has to spend nearly 4 million VND to buy clean water. Although the company’s budget for buying clean water is not large, the effort and time spent is a lot. The company has to go buy water in Vinh City, which takes a lot of time.

Up to now, in industrial zones and clusters in the province, some essential infrastructures such as transportation and clean water are in the process of completion. The biggest difficulty in the process of participating in investing in the construction of works and projects to supply clean water to industrial zones and clusters in the province is the lack of construction capital. Because clean water supply works require large scale and modern technology. Most of the industrial zones and clusters in the province have not had many investors in exploitation, mainly in the process of attracting investment and starting construction, so it is very difficult to recover capital. Therefore, clean water in most concentrated industrial zones and clusters in the province is mainly exploited from existing clean water supply works on site or transmitted from other localities when needed.

Currently, Nghe An Water Supply One Member Co., Ltd. is speeding up the construction progress of the water supply project in the vicinity of Vinh City. The project has a capacity of 20,000m3/day, with a total investment of over 200 billion VND, of which the ODA loan from Finland is 10,927,659.57 euros, and domestic counterpart capital is 89,587 million VND. When completed, the project will meet the clean water supply needs of Nam Giang, Kim Lien (Nam Dan district); Hung Tay commune (Hung Nguyen district); Nghi Lien, Nghi Kim commune (Vinh city); Quan Hanh town, Nghi Long, Nghi Truong, Nghi Trung, Nghi Hoa, Nghi Thuan, Nghi An, Nghi Thinh, Nghi Van communes (Nghi Loc district) and Nam Cam Industrial Park according to the orientation of expanding Vinh urban space by 2015, taking into account the year 2020.

Article and photos:Pham Bang