Review and tighten management of all underground water exploitation and use projects in Cua Lo area.

Necessary!

May 22, 2025,Department of Agriculture and Environmenthas Document No. 2972/SNNMT-KS requesting Vinh City People's Committee to review and evaluate all groundwater exploitation and use projects in the area.

Accordingly, in order to improve the efficiency of management, exploitation and use of water resources in accordance with the provisions of law (Law on Water Resources No. 28/2023/QH15; Decree No. 53/2024/ND-CP dated May 16, 2024 and Decree No. 54/2024/ND-CP dated May 16, 2024 of the Government), the Department of Agriculture and Environment requests the People's Committee of Vinh City to direct relevant agencies to implement a number of contents:

“1. Organize the review, assessment and statistics of all underground water exploitation and use projects in the city, focusing on the wards and communes (belonging to the old Cua Lo town). Note to clearly classify licensed and unlicensed projects in cases that are subject to licensing according to regulations. Make a detailed list including information on project name, project owner, location, purpose and estimated exploitation flow to report to the Department of Agriculture and Environment.

For organizations and individuals exploiting and using water resources without a License as prescribed, suspend water resource exploitation activities; at the same time, advise and handle administrative violations of organizations and individuals, if any, in accordance with the provisions of law in Decree 36/2020/ND-CP dated March 24, 2020 and Decree No. 04/2022/ND-CP dated January 6, 2022. In addition, guide organizations and individuals to complete the application for a license to exploit water resources in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Water Resources 2023, Decree No. 54/2024/ND-CP dated May 16, 2024 of the Government and other relevant regulations.

2. Promote the dissemination and popularization of legal regulations on water resources to raise public awareness of the importance of protecting underground water resources and related obligations and responsibilities for illegal exploitation and use of water resources.

3. Strengthen regular and unscheduled inspections and supervision of organizations and individuals engaged in the exploitation and use of underground water resources. Promptly detect, prevent and strictly handle violations of regulations on the exploitation and use of water resources.

Explaining the Department of Agriculture and Environment's orientation to focus on reviewing in the Cua Lo area, Mr. Nguyen Cong Luc - Head of the Minerals Department said: "Cua Lo is an area with a concentration of resort hotels, with many activities of exploiting groundwater for business purposes. However, in the past, there have been reports that groundwater exploitation activities in Cua Lo have not complied with the provisions of the law. Therefore, the Department of Agriculture and Environment finds it necessary to strengthen control and prevent budget losses when there are activities of exploiting water resources; at the same time, prevent violations of the provisions of the law".

Also according to Mr. Nguyen Cong Luc, in Document No. 2972/SNNMT-KS, the Department of Agriculture and Environment requested the Vinh City People's Committee to report the implementation results in writing before June 15, 2025 after reviewing so that the Department can synthesize and report to the Provincial People's Committee. However, although the Vinh City People's Committee has directed the People's Committees of the wards in the area to implement this content, it has not yet reported the implementation results.

Mr. Nguyen Cong Luc said: “After the Law on Water Resources 2023 and related Decrees came into effect, the Department of Agriculture and Environment issued many documents guiding the District People's Committees to organize implementation. On the other hand, the Department also organized a number of inspections, detected violations, and then proposed the District People's Committees to impose administrative sanctions according to their authority.

Regarding Cua Lo area, although Vinh City People's Committee has not yet reported, through its own channels, the Department has gradually grasped the current situation so that when the 2-level local government comes into operation, the Department will organize inspections of a number of organizations, and at the same time, will request the newly established Cua Lo ward government to organize a review...".

Need control measures

Investigation by Nghe An Newspaper reporter: Upon receiving Document No. 2972/SNNMT-KS from the Department of Agriculture and Environment, on May 26, 2025, Vinh City People's Committee issued Document No. 3526/UBND-TNMT directing the People's Committees of wards and communes in the area to review and report on the exploitation and use of underground water resources. However, in the recent past, wards and communes in Vinh City have been focusing on merging, streamlining, and reorganizing the apparatus to promptly switch to implementing a 2-level local government, so the review work has not kept up with the assigned progress.

In Cua Lo area, Nghi Huong, Nghi Thu, Thu Thuy wards... although they have organized announcements and carried out screening work, the results obtained are mainly from organizations and individuals with groundwater exploitation activities self-declared. Therefore, the data compiled by these wards is not really reliable; in fact, there are still mistakes in declaration.

Specifically in Nghi Thu ward, most hotels and restaurants exploit and use groundwater in their business activities; but only 7-8 hotels and restaurants declared their usage with a volume of over 10m3/day and night. However, when informed about the legal regulations, the owners of these hotels “turned around”, corrected that there was a mistake, saying that the declared data was for the month, not for daily usage.

When asked, Ms. Hoang Thi Phuong, an environmental officer of Nghi Thu ward (the officer directly responsible for the review), clearly stated this situation. At the same time, she acknowledged that when superiors do not have instructions on inspection and review methods, it is very difficult for grassroots officers to control the exploitation and use of groundwater.

“Through the review, we have only been able to determine which hotels and restaurants exploit and use groundwater, and how many wells they have drilled, but we cannot determine the volume of groundwater they have exploited and used in a day. Therefore, superiors need to have specific instructions on how to control this activity…” – Ms. Hoang Thi Phuong suggested.

Also in Nghi Thu ward, Chairman of the People's Committee of the ward Cao Anh Hung expressed concern about the request: "For organizations and individuals who are exploiting and using water resources without a License as prescribed, suspend water resource exploitation activities; at the same time, advise and handle administrative violations of organizations and individuals..." in Document No. 2972 ​​/ SNNMT-KS of the Department of Agriculture and Environment. Mr. Cao Anh Hung discussed: "Regarding this content, we see the need to clarify the sanctions for handling violations, as well as the authority to handle violations...".

The above concerns were forwarded to the Head of the Minerals Department (Department of Agriculture and Environment) Nguyen Cong Luc, who replied that, according to current legal regulations, only licensed units can install water meters to have specific qualitative data. Therefore, for the area of ​​motels, hotels, hospitals, etc. in general, during the review process, in addition to asking related organizations and individuals to self-declare, it is necessary to base on the number of registered rooms and the average water demand/person/day and night as prescribed by the State to compare and clarify whether the declaration is truthful or not.

Regarding the handling of administrative violations, Mr. Nguyen Cong Luc said that when detecting violations by organizations or individuals, it is based on the provisions of the law in Decree 36/2020/ND-CP dated March 24, 2020 and Decree No. 04/2022/ND-CP dated January 6, 2022 of the Government regulating administrative sanctions in the field of water resources and minerals.

“Regarding the authority to sanction administrative violations in the field of water resources, according to regulations, it will belong to the People's Committees and Police of newly established wards and communes. When the two-level local government comes into operation, in addition to stepping up inspection activities, the Department will also have instructions on this content…” – Mr. Nguyen Cong Luc emphasized.