Residents in Ca Mau have been dependent on rainwater and groundwater for their daily activities and farming (Photo: VNA) In an interview to the Vietnam News Agency on theoccasion of the World Water Day 2024 (Mach 22), Khuyen cited a report from theUN-Water showing that currently, more than 3 billion people worldwide are dependingon transboundary water sources.
Without solidarity and fairness, water can be a cause ofconflict when the interests of users are different and cannot bereconciled or when the quantity and quality of water decreases, which canaffect human health and ecosystems, the official held, underlining the risksfor water resources to become a weapon or a target of conflicts.
For Vietnam, a country that has 3,450 rivers and streamswith a length of 10 km or more, of which 405 are inter-provincial, includingcross-border rivers, it is necessary to strengthen cooperation and sharing inthe process of exploiting transnational water sources on cross-border riverssuch as the Mekong River, Red River, Ma River, Se San River, and Srepork River,Khuyen underlined.
He noted that Vietnam was the first ASEAN member to join theConvention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses in2014, becoming the 35th member of the convention and enabling it tobecome effective after 17 years of approval.
The engagement in the convention has provided Vietnam with afavourable legal basis to negotiate and sign bilateral and multilateralagreements with countries sharing common water sources on cooperation in resolvingdisputes and disagreements and handling issues related to transnational waterresources, especially in the context that Vietnam depends on the exploitation,use and protection of water resources of upstream countries, he said.
The official said that in order to prepare for the NaturalResources Law to become effective from July 1, 2024, the Department of WaterResources Management is working to build documents detailing the implementationof the law, a plan for the realisation of the law, and other documentsspecifying contents of the law.
The department has conducted activities to popularise the law,while focusing on building the national water resources database to meetrequirements of the national digital transformation programme.
It has also built water resources scenarios to serve as afoundation for ministries, sectors, and localities to build their own water useplans, he said.
Khuyen said that the department will speed up therestoration of degraded, depleted, and polluted water sources on a pilot basisfor Bac Hung Hai, Nhue, Day, and Ngu Huyen Khue rivers.
Along with closely monitoring the water resources, thedepartment will promote international cooperation in the field, the officialadded./.
VNA
