Seminar: Draft Law on Water Supply and Drainage

Vietnam Water Supply and Sewerage Association coordinated with the Ministry of Construction to organize a seminar on the draft Law on Water Supply and Drainage on September 29th, at the International Exhibition Center of Thu Dau Mot city, Binh Duong province. This is one of a series of activities of Vietnam Water Week 2023 held in Binh Duong, with the attendance of number of delegates from ministries and central branches; localities; domestic and foreign enterprises; experts and scientists.

Chairman of the Vietnam Water Supply and Sewerage Association Nguyen Ngoc Diep spoke at the opening of the seminar.

Chairman of the Vietnam Water Supply and Sewerage Association Nguyen Ngoc Diep said that clean water is a special commodity, both a basic daily need of each person and a direct impact on the health and all other essential activities of life. In addition, wastewater from living and production activities discharged into the environment which is not well controlled, will pose unpredictable risks of pollution and disease. Investing in the construction of water supply, drainage, and wastewater treatment systems requires coordination from all levels, sectors, localities, and businesses, and requires large investment capital.

Meanwhile, Vietnam currently does not have legal documents with the highest legal effect to regulate activities in the fields of water supply, drainage and wastewater treatment. In a role of an organization representing  interests of its members (water industry enterprises), the Vietnam Water Supply and Sewerage Association is actively and proactively participating with the Ministry of Construction in the process of drafting the Law on Water Supply and Drainage through organizing consultation activities with businesses and international organizations, organizing conferences and seminars to provide comments on the draft Law. In the framework of the seminar, with the presence of representatives of ministries, international organizations and the Department of Technical Infrastructure (Ministry of Construction) - the agency in charge of developing the draft Law on Water Supply and Drainage, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Diep expressed his hope that the opinions and experience sharing of managers and domestic and international experts would help the drafting agency to complete the draft Law before submitting it to the competent authorities.

Director of the Department of Technical Infrastructure (Ministry of Construction) Ta Quang Vinh spoke at the seminar.

Carrying out tasks assigned by the Government, recently, the Ministry of Construction has made a dossier to request the development of a Law on Water Supply and Drainage and organized many seminars to collect opinions on the draft Law in all three regions, North, Central, and South, receiving nearly 200 votes. Director Ta Quang Vinh said that the delegates focused on giving comments on a specialized planning of water supply and drainage, water supply areas in the planning and water supply areas assigned to water supply units, and water supply assets, price of clean water, price of drainage services, investment capital for drainage... The seminar has a great significance in summarizing and receiving comments from experts and delegates in the process of researching and developing a draft proposal for the Law on Water Supply and Drainage.

At the seminar, a representative of the Department of Technical Infrastructure reported basic contents of the draft Law on Water Supply and Drainage and main issues that need to consult. Representatives of the Department of Irrigation (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), Department of Water Resources Management (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment), Department of Bidding Management (Ministry of Planning and Investment), international organizations such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank also have many practical opinions and many presentations to share experiences in related fields.

The World Bank's presentation "International experience on market orientation and the role of the private sector participating in water supply, drainage and wastewater treatment" mentioned large gaps in quality and the stability of Vietnam's water supply and drainage services; obstacles to attract private investment and public-private cooperation mechanisms in the fields of water supply, drainage, and wastewater treatment... Therefore, in the draft Law, it is necessary to focus on resolving a number of main obstacles on financial, technical and institutional, while creating an attractive investment environment to attract financial resources from the private sector. It is necessary to affirm the Government's commitment in strengthening the industry's current economic policies through establishing mechanisms to improve cost recovery, financial sources and new off-price revenue sources....

The seminar scene

The seminar on the draft Law on Water Supply and Drainage attracted the attention of hundreds of domestic and international delegates. Presentations, comments, and information at the seminar will be researched and absorbed by the drafting agency in the process of completing the draft Law.