An additional 50,000 cubic metres of water would be pumped from the Da River and another 10,000cu.m of water would be drawn from seven new wells every day beginning in May, he said.

The company promised to supply 634,000cu.m of water per day to satisfy the demand of the 210,000 households in the city.

More than 46,000 households in the outer districts of Thanh Tri, Tu Liem, Dong Anh, Gia Lam and Soc Son would also receive fresh water from the company this year.

Hai ensured that workers would be on duty at all hours of the day and night to monitor water pipelines and fix any problems of quality or access that might arise.

However, many people have already been suffering from a lack of water for several weeks this summer.

Thousands of households in Dong Da District's Thanh Cong Residential Quarter have been faced with a water shortage for nearly a month.

Tran Ngoc Hung, director of the Dong Da branch of the Hanoi Water Company, said there were two main reasons for the shortage: first, this residential quarter was at the very end of the city's water pipelines and, second, the system was old and time-consuming to repair.

He said the company would ensure sufficient water supply for this residential quarter when it received more water from the Da River.

Pham Hung, a resident in the Thanh Cong Residential Quarter, said water cuts had taken place several times already this summer, so the problem seemed to be a lack of water and not broken pipelines.

In February, about 40,000 households in southwestern Ha Noi suffered a water shortage for several days due to a broken section of water pipe.

Hai said that the company would ameliorate this situation by improving its pipe system and the operations of its subsidiary companies.