As many as 83 percent of the populationin rural areas are expected to have access to clean water, said DeputyMinister of Agriculture and Rural Development Dao Xuan Hoc.
This figure was the target for this year’s national programme on cleanwater and environmental hygiene in rural areas, which is part of phase 2that runs from 2006 to 2010. This programme was also part of alarger goal that had aimed to provide clean water and proper sanitationto 100 percent of rural residents by 2010.
If accomplished, the access to clean water would increase by fourpercent, when compared to figures from last year.
The remaining areas where clean water had not been made availed topeople include the remote areas in the northwestern provinces of HaGiang 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 thelargest donors to this programme.
Nguyen Van Thuan, from the Australian Agency for InternationalDevelopment in Vietnam’s Water Programme Manager said: “The mainchallenges were with the operation and maintenance activities. In theprevious plan for the first phase (2001-2005), there was no fundsprovided for operations and maintenance costs.”
He said, when reviewing the first phase, in many localities, therewere many places where the water supply infrastructure had beenfinished, yet residents were not interested in applying to get connectedto pipeline. This resulted in the degradation of the infrastructure.
“Promoting involvement of more diverse participants, rather than onlypromoting State agencies, may be a good solution,” Thuan said.
Deputy Minister Hoc said the ministry was establishing mechanisms thatask every economic sectors to take part in the clean water andenvironmental hygiene investment and development process.
Last year, 2.6 million people in the rural areas gained access toclean water, which brought the total amount of people with access toclean water in the country to 79 percent.
The budget for last year’s programme activities amounted to 5.335billion VND (270 million USD), with one-fifth of those funds beingprovided by international aid.
As of now, 59 million out of 83 million that live in the countryreside in rural areas./.
This figure was the target for this year’s national programme on cleanwater and environmental hygiene in rural areas, which is part of phase 2that runs from 2006 to 2010. This programme was also part of alarger goal that had aimed to provide clean water and proper sanitationto 100 percent of rural residents by 2010.
If accomplished, the access to clean water would increase by fourpercent, when compared to figures from last year.
The remaining areas where clean water had not been made availed topeople include the remote areas in the northwestern provinces of HaGiang 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 thelargest donors to this programme.
Nguyen Van Thuan, from the Australian Agency for InternationalDevelopment in Vietnam’s Water Programme Manager said: “The mainchallenges were with the operation and maintenance activities. In theprevious plan for the first phase (2001-2005), there was no fundsprovided for operations and maintenance costs.”
He said, when reviewing the first phase, in many localities, therewere many places where the water supply infrastructure had beenfinished, yet residents were not interested in applying to get connectedto pipeline. This resulted in the degradation of the infrastructure.
“Promoting involvement of more diverse participants, rather than onlypromoting State agencies, may be a good solution,” Thuan said.
Deputy Minister Hoc said the ministry was establishing mechanisms thatask every economic sectors to take part in the clean water andenvironmental hygiene investment and development process.
Last year, 2.6 million people in the rural areas gained access toclean water, which brought the total amount of people with access toclean water in the country to 79 percent.
The budget for last year’s programme activities amounted to 5.335billion VND (270 million USD), with one-fifth of those funds beingprovided by international aid.
As of now, 59 million out of 83 million that live in the countryreside in rural areas./.
