Maison du Vietnam Resort & Spa, Phu Quoc

However, his own story also partly shows that there is a secondary necessity, even more important than tourism, for the future development of Pearl Island.

He said that a few years ago, the family drilled groundwater wells up to 60 meters to have water. But it is also called luck, because, according to him, many places drill wells, although the authorities prohibit, drilling more than 60 meters still earn not to go into the water. While the area he lived in, when he was young, drilling about 25-30 meters was comfortable groundwater.

Few islands in Vietnam have as rich forest and groundwater as Phu Quoc. The area of the island is nearly 60,000 hectares, now the area of forest is thought to be natural forest and protection amounted to nearly 40,000 hectares, or more than 60% of the area of the island is forest. The survey of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment shows that groundwater quality in the island is quite good, can exploit water supply for eating and living with potential reserves according to the calculation of nearly 123,000 cubic meters/day and night; the exploitable reserves are determined about 36,900 cubic meters/day and night.

Currently, the water supply system for communes and wards in Phu Quoc Island works almost at full capacity. A water workshop in 2022 showed that the Duong Dong water plant with a design capacity of 24,000 cubic meters / day provides about 21,000-23,000 cubic meters / day, which is roughly equal to the design capacity.

The reason is clear, the island population increased sharply, investment in tourism development is quite fast, only on the international booking website, there are more than 700 hotels in Phu Quoc registered online booking. A person who is knowledgeable about Phu Quoc Tourism told the writer that the demand for water for tourism is quite "terrible". According to him, a large-scale resort that has just entered operation in the island has a need to use 500 cubic meters of water per day, while hotels and large-scale resorts grow like mushrooms.

With the standard of water supply for urban areas when Ngoc island from district administration to the city is 120 liters / person / day, with tourists is 300 liters / person / day, plus water for industry-services, the total water supply demand of Phu Quoc five years up to 70,000 cubic meters / day, many times higher than the design capacity.

Although it is an island in the middle of the southwestern Sea, recently heavy rain is locally flooded, there is a deep submerged place more than 1 m of water. The reason is quite simple: the speed of urban construction is too fast and the high compression of urban drains overloads. Wastewater collection and treatment currently only a handful of high-end resorts on the island are equipped with this system, the remaining most of the domestic wastewater of more than 144,000 people and thousands of production and business facilities on the island are discharged directly untreated into rivers, streams, canals and dumped into the sea.

This situation causes Phu Quoc Island to be polluted, affecting the quality of coastal sea water around the island, which is within the scope of Phu Quoc marine reserve. In the future, if there is no radical solution, will the island still be a paradise for Sea tourism?

The island government forecasts that the demand for water by 2030 is to supply clean water to about 500,000 people, with a capacity of 120,000 cubic meters/day. At the same time, it is necessary to collect and process about 72,000 cubic meters of sewage/day, the pressure is not small for a new island district that has just reached the provincial city.

In order to protect the groundwater in Phu Quoc for the future, the island authorities have recommended resorts and new hotels to build absolutely not drilled private groundwater wells. The drilled places require full closure, switching to tap water to avoid affecting the island's groundwater. But this is not easy. When the demand for water in the resort to hundreds and thousands of cubic meters per day, drilling wells using groundwater is the fastest, cheapest way for hotels and resorts.

The World Bank (WB) and the Australian agency for International Development (Aus AID) not so long ago held a seminar on the topic of promoting sustainable water management and use for Phu Quoc Island.

The future of development of Ngoc Phu Quoc Island is clearly not exactly dozens, hundreds of Hotels, Resorts sprang up, millions of visitors come every year... but... water.