A speaker at a conference in HCM City on November 8 on Vietnam’s water industry (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNS/VNA) - ꦉVietnam needs to work on implementing modern IT systems and highquality workforce training in the water supply and drainage industries inpreparation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, experts said at a conferencein HCM City on November 8.
Mai Thi Lien Huong of the Ministry of Construction said Vietnam’s water supplyand drainage industry had been applying hi-tech methods and IT. However, it wasfacing problems such as limited funding, climate change and pollution.
Investing into smart systems for managing water distribution is crucial forsustainable development of water industries.
Nguyen Viet Anh, Director of the Institute of Environment Science andEngineering, said that Industry 4.0 technologies like cloud computing, 3Dprinting, AI and the Internet of Things can be used alongside data collectionand processing in water supply and drainage systems. Smart equipment such assmart valves, digital data loggers and equipment to detect leakage can also beimplemented.
Vietnam’s production capability for smart water management products is stilllimited. Smart systems require a large amount of data, which can be difficultto gather and manage.
Supervisory control and data acquisition systems need to be upgraded for betterdata gathering and water network management. Database and customer serviceshould move away from manual paperwork and be more digitised.
Vietnam should work towards smart water supply and drainage systems to enableefficient management of water quality and volume, weather forecasts and problemdetection.
Ung Quoc Dung, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Water Supply and SewerageAssociation, said that, despite the fact that many firms in the country werestill using low-tech systems, the implementation of 4.0 technology would imposemassive changes on the Vietnamese job market. Low skilled jobs would bereplaced by high skilled employees needed to run smart systems.
Firms will also have to train and hire more suitable workers and invest more inmodern IT systems.
“In the future, the intelligence and talent of the workers will be the most importantfactor for production, so preparing a high quality workforce is essential,” Dungsaid.
The education system and human resource training have to be revamped to produceworkers that have the skills and creativity needed for Industry 4.0.
Many skilled workers are grouped in HCM City and Hanoi, while more are neededin the Central Highlands and Mekong Delta.
Dung said that to prepare for Industry 4.0, the workforce – especially in thedrainage and wastewater industries, which are relatively new in Vietnam– needsto improve on foreign languages, IT capability, teamwork, communication andother skills.
﷽ The conference was a part of VIETWATER 2018, an international exhibition fortechnologies and systems in water industries.-VNS/VNA
