Ho Chi Minh City water supply companies are working to improve the supply of clean water to residents in District 8, Binh Tan and Tan Binh districts.

Cho Lon Water Supply Company has already installed half of the 7,000 water meters it planned this year for households in Binh Tan District.

“We are cooperating with the contractors of traffic improvement and city beautification projects to avoid digging streets later,” said Le Trong Hieu, the company’s deputy director.

The company aims to supply clean water to 90 percent of the households in Binh Tan by 2010, including those in Binh Hung Hoa A Ward, according to Hieu.

To date it has built about 4,000 meters of water pipeline and installed 1,000 household water meters in the ward, with work continuing month.

He said two other water supply projects in November and December this year would add 18 kilometers of water pipeline and 3,000 household water meters throughout the ward.

All Binh Hung Hoa A Ward residents are expected to have a clean water supply by this coming Tet holiday if the company is able to quickly choose contractors for those projects, he said.

According to the deputy director, Cho Lon Company had initially scheduled the projects for 2009 but the company decided to start this year due to the critical shortage of clean waterin the area.

Only 10 to 15 percent of 17,000 households in Binh Hung Hoa A Ward have access to clean water, according to Hieu.

“We are trying to raise the number to 40 to 50 percent this year.”

Meanwhile, in District 8 many projects have been launched to solve the clean water shortage residents have had to bear for more than a decade.

Locals in wards 1 and 2 of the district still depend on some 500 cubic meters of water that Cho Lon Water Supply Company tankers bring every day.

Hieu said about seven water supply projects would start this month to install more than 8,000 water meters in the District 8.

Many contractors of water supply projects in Tan Binh and Tan Phu districts, however, put their projects on hold because of this year’s surge in the price of building materials.

Lai Van Dang, director of Tan Hoa water supply division under Saigon Water Company, said he had to persuade the contractors to press on with the projects.

Dang said the contractors agreed partly because the Ministry of Construction had allowed them to adjust the price of their contracts.

But Tan Hoa division would have to rush because it had to finish the 15 projects planned for the year 2008 in only five months, according to Dang.

To meet its goal of supplying clean water to 95 percent of households in

Tan Binh District by 2010, Tan Hoa division will have to install 2,000 water meters this year leaving 4,500 to go.

Last month Chau Van La, chairman of Tan Binh District People’s Committee, ordered the ward administrations to send lists of all ward households to Tan Hoa water supply division so it could schedule its projects for this year’s last half.

In addition, Tan Hoa water supply division plans to install 8,000 water meters in Tan Phu District this year and has set a goal of increasing the number of households in this district that have clean water supply to 90 percent by 2010.

Only 52 percent of Tan Phu District’s households had access to clean water at the end last year.