A French National Assembly member for Hauts-de-Seine province has pledged continued financial assistance to the northern province of Nam Dinh to carry out water works and environmental hygiene.

At a working session in the province on Nov. 15, Andre Santini, who is President of A Public Drinking Water Service for the Greater Metropolitan Paris Area (SEDIF), told Nam Dinh authorities that he was happy at bilateral cooperation over the recent past.

Vice Chairman of the Nam Dinh Provincial People’s Committee Doan Hong Phong highly valued works of a SEDIF-financed solidarity fund establishment project for Nam Dinh water sector.

This is a humanitarian project which not only directly benefits people where the project is carried out but also helps alleviate hunger and reduce poverty for provincial people in difficult regions, Phong said.

The project has been carried out under a document to implement a framework agreement signed between SEDIF and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s National Centre for Rural Water Supply and Environmental Hygiene on June 26, 1998.

It is intended to improve the social and medical conditions for rural people through supplying safe water for their daily use, disseminating environmental hygiene information in the community and establishing a solidarity fund of the provincial water sector by using 8-10 percent of water plants’ turnover to invest in small projects in the field.

Since the project was carried out in 1998 in Nam Dinh province, 10 water works with a combined capacity of more than 8,500 cu.m of water per day have been built with almost 15 billion VND, of which 5.5 billion VND sourced from SEDIF. Seven out of 10 works have been upgraded with an investment of around 5.8 billion VND.

In addition, SEDIF provides a funding of more than 105,000 EUR to a water supply service assistance project in Nam Dinh and Ninh Binh provinces.

Also on Nov. 15, SEDIF delegation toured Ninh Binh province to inspect water and hygiene projects.

Founded in 1923, SEDIF has been implementing 141 projects that benefit around 1.6 million people in almost 20 Asian and African nations. In Vietnam, SEDIF has funded seven projects, worth more than 1 million EUR, that benefit almost 164,000 people./.