A Law for the conservation of Myanmar’s underground water resources has been drafted and is hoped to be enacted in the near future, said U Ba Shwe, an adviser to the Ministry of Construction and the National Water Resources Committee.

“We have been working on developing this law since 2014 with government departments and experts, led by the ministry’s Urban and Housing Development Department, and we are on the seventh draft of the law. It will be sent to the cabinet and to the Hluttaw.

If the Hluttaw reviewing committee thinks the law is OK, it will call for public suggestions. I hope it will be soon,” he said on Sunday.Experts are concerned about groundwater pumping, especially in Yangon, where speedy urbanisation has occurred in a delta area that is at risk of salt intruding on freshwater resources.

The state newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar said that as an agro-base country, water utilization for agricultural sector stands for 90% while industry and domestic use is only about 10% of the total water use.

The total utilization of the nation’s water resources is only about 5 percent of the potential, it said.

Experts said current groundwater use in the country has not reached critical levels, but the issue should be considered to plan for the future.