Rural clean water programme to be expanded

A clean water project in Vietnam funded by the World Bank. (Source: vietmaz.com)

Lam Dong (VNA) – The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the World Bank (WB) held a workshop on expanding the programme on sanitation and clean rural water in the Central Highlands and the south central region.

The workshop aims to expand the programme to seven provinces – Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Lam Dong, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan.

This is the third area to benefit from the programme after the northwestern and northeastern regions.

The WB committed to give Vietnam 200 million USD to build facilities and raise awareness of accessibility to clean water and sanitary toilets.

Pham S, Vice Chairman of the Lam Dong Provincial People’s Committee, said the province is accelerating programmes of supplying clean water and building sanitary toilets.

Currently, the coverage rate of sanitary toilets in the Central Highlands, and Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan provinces ranges from 43 to 85 percent. Gia Lai has the lowest rate.

Vietnam has around 20 million people using sub-standard toilets, which has been causing losses of two million USD per day.-VNA