Water Storage And Distribution: Plans To Prevent From Depletion Of Groundwater Source

Yangon City Development Committee is making arrangements to collect rain water to prevent from the depletion of underground water aquifer ecosystem. Due to increasing population of Yangon City, the use of underground water became higher day by day. YCDC is distributing about 220 million gallons of daily by filtering water from lakes, rivers, rain water and underground water. Plans are underway to filter and collect the rain water in the storage tanks to get natural fresh water and distribute for the household use. Tin Hla Tun, Deputy Director, Water Distribution Station, YCDC said “Here in this park, about 1/3 of rain water, collected on the grass are being flown to the nearby drainages.

To avoid from being wasted, we will let the rain water flows into the well by using the 4 inches pipes and filter it by using stones and sand. It also aims to prevent from the inflow of salt water.” Being situated in delta region which could have the higher risk of saltwater intrusion in the underground water sources, the experts suggest that Yangon City’s dependence on groundwater must be reduced to avoid loss of groundwater supplies. Prof. Dr Win Naing, Hydrogeologist said “Yangon City is surrounded by Yangon River and Hlaing River.

Since both of these rivers have the fluctuating tides, there are inflow of salty water. So, the more we extract natural fresh water, the more possibility of these salty water inflow to the underground water sources. So, we need to have limited extraction of underground water.” Population in Yangon is over 7.8 million, and the project could help prevent the city dwellers from facing water scarcity in the future.