The Vietnam Environment Administration (VEA) has warned of clean water shortage for the region along the Dong Nai River basin as the current water source is under threat of pollution from industrial and household wastewater discharges. The Dong Nai River basin, spanning a total area of 37,000 kilometers, gets water from four major rivers, including Dong Nai, Be, ${bigcity_Ho_Chi_Minh_City:”Saigon”} and Vam Co Dong.

Currently, wastewater from industrial parks, craft villages and households have been discharged into the rivers, with an amount of 1.8 million, 141,000 and 2.7 million cubic meters respectively, according to VEA.

Due to the fast pace of urbanization and industrialization in the Dong Nai River basin, the pollution threat is mounting, especially in HCMC, Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Lam Dong, Tay Ninh, Binh Thuan and Long An provinces.

To protect the water source, VEA is collecting opinions of relevant provinces to compose a master plan for the basin until 2015 and a vision to 2020.

Accordingly, the 2011-2015 period aims to strictly punish 90% of polluters and to reduce the impact caused by dioxin and furan in the region.

The total cost for the plan of protecting the basin in the 2015-2020 period is estimated to amount to VND750 billion, including projects of protecting the environment, controlling land pollution caused by solid waste, building drainage systems, collecting and treating household wastewater, and building facilities to improve the environment.