National Rally in response to World Water Day 2017

Attending the Rally were Mr. Tran Hong Ha - Member of Party Central Committee, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment; Mr. Chu Pham Ngoc Hien - Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Head of Steering Committee for the celebration of World Water Day 2017 and representatives of relevant ministries and agencies.

Leaders of Bac Ninh province attending the Rally were Mr. Nguyen Nhan Chien, Member of Party Central Committee, Secretary of Provincial Party Committee (PPC), Head of Provincial Delegation of National Assembly; Mr. Nguyen Huu Quat, Permanent Deputy Secretary of the PPC; Mr. Nguyen Tu Quynh, Deputy Secretary of the PPC, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Ms. Nguyen Thi Ha, Deputy Secretary of the PPC, Mr. Nguyen Tien Nhuong, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, co-Head of the Steering Committee for the celebration of World Water Day 2017 and the comrades in the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee,  People's Council, People's Committee, Fatherland Front, representatives of provincial departments and unions.

On the side of international organizations, there were Mr. Achim Fock, Portfolio & Operations Manager of the World Bank Office in Vietnam; Mr. Tom Kompier, First Secretary of Water sector and Climate of the Royal Embassy of Netherland; representatives of embassies and international organizations. Attending the Rally were also many classes of people in Bac Ninh province.

Minister of MONRE Mr. Tran Hong Ha had an opening speech

Speaking at the Rally, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha said that, in 2017, the United Nations chose "Wastewater" as the theme for World Water Day to support the goal of sustainable development for water quality improvement, wastewater minimization, enhancement of wastewater treatment and reuse with the most important message of “minimizing and reusing wastewater to avoid wastage and to improve water resources for living organisms”.

According to the evaluation of Asian Bank, Vietnam has been in the list of nations where lack of water, while the steady increase of economic growth, population pressure and life quality in the past decades caused pollution, degradation and depletion of water resources that formed disputes between sectors which use water. By acknowledgting these challenges, Viet Nam has always made great strides in international negotiations in order to build a collaborative mechanism for harmony management of water resources among nations, to issue many important mechanisms and policies for the effective and efficient management and use of water resources.

However, we have been facing many difficulties when the implementation of water resources sharing mechanism under United Nation Convention on water use for non-navigation purposes has not been interested, participated and shared by countries in the region. This reason and El Niño phenomenon has caused drought, water shortage, salinity intrusion and water pollution in many regions of the country, especially in the Middle, Central Highlands and Mekong Delta provinces recently.

National Rally of World Water Day in 2017

In 2017 and the next years, the MONRE would continue to co-ordinate with ministries and provinces in applying the resolutions of the Party, National Assembly and Government relating to water resources management in life, serious implementing the provisions of the Law on Water Resources, the Law on Environmental Protection, the proposed action plans and programs, especially the Resolution No.24-NQ/TW of the Party Central Committee on climate change response, strengthening the management of natural resources and environmental protection, and the Directive No.25/CT-TTg on some urgent tasks and solutions on environmental protection.

Mr. Chairman of Provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Tu Quynh had a speech

On behalf of Bac Ninh province’s leaders, Mr. Nguyen Tu Quynh - Deputy Secretary of the PPC, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee said that along with the process of rapid economic development and population growth like many other provinces, Bac Ninh has been facing a number of environmental issues, particularly sewage treatment in the craft villages and domestic wastewater. Although there were many synchronous solutions, solving the problem of wastewater has always been a big challenge in the development process.

Economic development would not be much meaningful without environmental protection and the life quality improvement, in which clean water is the primary factor to ensure the health of people. Water is not an infinite resource, but it is certainly a renewable resource, Mr. Chairman said.

In warm response to World Water Day 2017 with the theme of "Wastewater", Bac Ninh Provincial People's Committee would direct all levels, sectors and localities to seriously implement, propagate, mobilize and raise the awareness and behavior of the whole society on pollution reduction, wastewater reuse, water use in a cost-effective and efficient manner, contributing to the socio-economic benefits as well as sustainable development for environment.

Representative of WB in Vietnam had a speech

Speaking at the Rally, Mr. Achim Fock, the Portfolio & Operations Manager of the World Bank Office in Vietnam, highly appreciated the achievements of Vietnam in enhancing its ability to access satisfied sanitation system. In the coming time, the World Bank would continue to accompany Vietnam in general and Bac Ninh in particular through its participation in the National Target Program on Clean Water and Sanitation, based on Vietnam's results. It would support some rural areas in the province to increase accessing ratio of clean and safe water as well as sanitation improvement./.