Delegates at the event (Photo: VNA) Thai Nguyen (VNA) – Measures to enhance women’s access to clean water and sanitation in rural areas were discussed in a seminar held by the Vietnam Women's Union (VWU) and the Women’s Union of Thai Nguyen province on March 28.
Truong Thi Thu Thuy, head of the Family-Social Affairs Department under the VWU said the VWU selected the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang, the southernmost province of Ca Mau and the northern mountainous province of Thai Nguyen to implement supporting measures to increase the number of people who have access to clean water and sanitation, hygiene.
According to data from Thai Nguyen province’s Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation Centre, as of the end of 2021, the ratio of rural households using clean water meeting the Health Ministry's standards reached 50.25%.
Meanwhile, statistics of the provincial Health Department revealed that as of 2022, 86% of all families had toilets meeting hygiene standard. A survey from the provincial Women's Union found that, 4,500 households in 77 communes, mainly in mountainous and highland districts such as Vo Nhai, Dinh Hoa, Dong Hy, did not have any toilet facility.
To improve rural women’s access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene, the VWU and experts from UNICEF have assisted the province in developing a plan on improving household’s living conditions and helping all households to have toilet facility during 2023-2025 with the direct targets of the project being women and girls in households without latrines.
The plan is expected to help communes to meet criteria of new-style rural areas in the next phrase, as well as assist with efforts to deliver on the government's commitment to the United Nations to end open defecation by 2025 and that all families have hygienic latrines by 2030./.
