Assessment of the Sustainability of Urban Water and Water Demand Management by using Geo-Information Technology for the Core Vientiane Municipality, Vientiane Capital, Lao PDR

Abstract

According to the economic and population growth and after Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR a member of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)), the water consumption and demand from 1997 to 2016 are continuous increasing, especially the Vientiane Capital. It is a fastest-growing city in the Lao PDR by population growth rate of 1.6% in 2016, economic growth rate of over 10.98% in 2016. Due to the National Action Plan of Lao PDR, to achieve the government water supply and sanitation access targets for 2020, it was examined the priority actions on water supply development in urban area, ensured that finance is effectively turned into services, and also supported the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to make sure everyone access the clean water to improve the quality of life, however, this plan is still far to achieve. The results were showed that the customers required the NPNL (Nam Papa Nakhon Luang), Vientiane Capital Water Supply State-owned Enterprise to improve three issues such as 1) water volume and pressures; 2) fast water installation and repair; and 3) water quality problems. Moreover, the relation of water demand and water supply, resulted that the percentages of water supply demand were 21.4% higher than recent water supply production, especially water supply consumption at the commercial areas in the peak hours. It is needed to produce more water supply and also improved water supply pipe system by replacing the poor and small sizes of old water pipes. Furthermore, the amounts of water supply consumption would increase year by year, the ways to balance regional water supply. The water demand is needed to increase the production capacities from 280,000 m³/day into 360,000m³/day in 2020 and 460,000 m³/day in 2030, which is possible by taking raw water from Mekong River and Nam Ngum River in the present and future situations.