Sand mining in Dầu Tiếng Lake, near Dương Minh Châu District, Tây Ninh Province. – Photo tuoitre.vn
BÌNH DƯƠNG – The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has asked authorities of Bình Dương and Tây Ninh provinces to halt sand mining activities in Dầu Tiếng Lake and report to the Prime Minister by May 15, Tuổi trẻ (Youth) newspaper reports.
An investigation previously conducted by the ministry showed that sand mining ruined the water supply for residents of Tây Ninh, Bình Dương and HCM City.
Therefore, authorities are urged to suspend mining for at least one month so that water quality can be restored.
Sand mining will only be resumed once it meets regulations of the Irrigation Law and does not affect water quality.
Dầu Tiếng Lake, with a surface area of 270sq.km and capacity of nearly 1.6 billion cubic meters of water, is one of the largest irrigation lakes in Southeast Asia.
The lake controls floods and supplies water for southern localities of Tây Ninh, Bình Dương, Bình Phước, HCM City and Long An.
Besides sand mining, solar energy projects have been implemented in the lake’s semi-submerged area. – VNS
