During his recent inspection visit to the An Trach Pumping Station, municipal People’s Committee Vice Chairman Dang Viet Dung has asked the Da Nang Water Supply Company (DAWACO) to solve salt-water contamination and ensure sufficient water for residents’ daily lives, agriculture and industrial production in the city.

Water quality for production at the Cau Do Water Plant has always been checked

Over recent days, many residents have continuously complained on social networks about brackish and turbid tap water.

In a prompt response to the public concern, DAWACO took some samples of tap water from 5 houses for testing at the municipal Centre for Disease Prevention and Control under the city’s Department of Health.

The results showed that the current salinity level of tap water was under 250 mg/l, the warning level stipulated by the national technical regulations issued by the Vietnamese Ministry of Health regarding drinking water quality. Also, the turbidity level of checked samples of tap water was lower than the warning level of 2 NTU.

According to DAWACO Deputy General Director Ho Minh Nam, tap water is brackish over recent days because the salinity level is still over 100mg/l.

Meanwhile, water is turbid water due to some downgraded pipes made of steel and cast iron used for a long time.

The Cau Do (Red Bridge) River has been suffering from severe salt-water contamination since 2 February.

The salinity level of the river was reported at 1.433 mg/l, much higher than the allowed limits of 1,000 mg/l.

The water level at the An Trach Dam is still enough to operate the pumping station, but there is not enough the volume of water pumped to the Cau Do (Red Bridge) Water Plant.

Therefore, it is necessary to find ways to push the salinity out of the water at the Cau Do River in an effort to bring more raw water in tandem with pumping water from the An Trach dam to the Cau Do Water Plan for production.

The water parameters are supervised by functional local bodies around the clock

As for solutions to severe salt-water contamination, the municipal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development will ask hydropower plants upstream of Vu Gia River such as Song Bung 4 and Dak Mi 4 have discharged a large volume of water so as to push the salinity out of the water, hereby ensuring the salinity level of under 900 mg/l.

Vice Chairman Dung asked DAWACO to ensure that the salinity level of tap water is under 100mg/l, and the An Trach pumping station must supply 210,000m³ of water per day before the construction of a pipe system to transport raw water to the Cau Do Water Plant which is scheduled to be put into use before 15 May.

The city leaders have given the green light to the building of a dam as soon as possible at the mouth of the Quang Hue River in order to ensure the majority of the water flow from the Vu Gia River will be released into the Yen River where the An Trach Dam is located.

In the related news, the municipal Department of Natural Resources and the Environment has issued warnings about harsh weather in the city this year.

Accordingly, the city and elsewhere in the central region is expected to brace for hot weather, drought, and severe saline intrusion over the coming months of this year.

The drought is expected to cause lower water levels at reservoirs, rivers and springs in many localities in the regions of between 30 – 60% in comparison with the average of many years.

In the current context of unfavourable weather conditions, many local households should install water tanks in their houses to hold water for use rather than directly using tap water from public pipelines, and to maintain the efficient use of tap water during the current spell of hot weather.

It is noticeable, following the approval by the municipal administration, coastal accommodation establishments across the city will be allowed build the network of sewage pipelines to reuse already-treated wastewater to water plants and grass there.