As many as 83 percent of the population in rural areas are expected to have access to clean water, said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Dao Xuan Hoc.
This figure was the target for this year’s national programme on clean water and environmental hygiene in rural areas, which is part of phase 2 that runs from 2006 to 2010. This programme was also part of a larger goal that had aimed to provide clean water and proper sanitation to 100 percent of rural residents by 2010.
If accomplished, the access to clean water would increase by four percent, when compared to figures from last year.
The remaining areas where clean water had not been made availed to people include the remote areas in the northwestern provinces of Ha Giang and Cao Bang and the heavily salinated land in the Mekong Delta, said Nguyen Hong Quan from the ministry’s Department of Water Resources.
Australia, the Netherlands and Denmark were among the largest donors to this programme.
Nguyen Van Thuan, from the Australian Agency for International Development in Vietnam’s Water Programme Manager said: “The main challenges were with the operation and maintenance activities. In the previous plan for the first phase (2001-2005), there was no funds provided for operations and maintenance costs.”
He said, when reviewing the first phase, in many localities, there were many places where the water supply infrastructure had been finished, yet residents were not interested in applying to get connected to pipeline. This resulted in the degradation of the infrastructure.
“Promoting involvement of more diverse participants, rather than only promoting State agencies, may be a good solution,” Thuan said.
Deputy Minister Hoc said the ministry was establishing mechanisms that ask every economic sectors to take part in the clean water and environmental hygiene investment and development process.
Last year, 2.6 million people in the rural areas gained access to clean water, which brought the total amount of people with access to clean water in the country to 79 percent.
The budget for last year’s programme activities amounted to 5.335 billion VND (270 million USD), with one-fifth of those funds being provided by international aid.
As of now, 59 million out of 83 million that live in the country reside in rural areas./.
This figure was the target for this year’s national programme on clean water and environmental hygiene in rural areas, which is part of phase 2 that runs from 2006 to 2010. This programme was also part of a larger goal that had aimed to provide clean water and proper sanitation to 100 percent of rural residents by 2010.
If accomplished, the access to clean water would increase by four percent, when compared to figures from last year.
The remaining areas where clean water had not been made availed to people include the remote areas in the northwestern provinces of Ha Giang and Cao Bang and the heavily salinated land in the Mekong Delta, said Nguyen Hong Quan from the ministry’s Department of Water Resources.
Australia, the Netherlands and Denmark were among the largest donors to this programme.
Nguyen Van Thuan, from the Australian Agency for International Development in Vietnam’s Water Programme Manager said: “The main challenges were with the operation and maintenance activities. In the previous plan for the first phase (2001-2005), there was no funds provided for operations and maintenance costs.”
He said, when reviewing the first phase, in many localities, there were many places where the water supply infrastructure had been finished, yet residents were not interested in applying to get connected to pipeline. This resulted in the degradation of the infrastructure.
“Promoting involvement of more diverse participants, rather than only promoting State agencies, may be a good solution,” Thuan said.
Deputy Minister Hoc said the ministry was establishing mechanisms that ask every economic sectors to take part in the clean water and environmental hygiene investment and development process.
Last year, 2.6 million people in the rural areas gained access to clean water, which brought the total amount of people with access to clean water in the country to 79 percent.
The budget for last year’s programme activities amounted to 5.335 billion VND (270 million USD), with one-fifth of those funds being provided by international aid.
As of now, 59 million out of 83 million that live in the country reside in rural areas./.
