As many as 1.7 million people in the Red River Delta will gainaccess to safe water and sanitation through the Programme for Results(PforR) funded by the World Bank (WB).

Theprogramme, which was co-launched by the Ministry of Agriculture andRural Development (MARD) and the WB on June 10, aims to improvesustainable access to and the efficiency of water supply and sanitationservices in rural areas of eight provinces in the region, includingPhu Tho, Vinh Phuc, Bac Ninh, Hung Yen, Quang Ninh, Hanoi, Ha Nam andThanh Hoa.

The programme will be implemented between2013 and 2017 at a total cost of 230.5 million USD, with 200 millionUSD coming from the WB. The Australian Government Overseas Aid Programme(AusAID) will provide an 8 million AUD technical aid to help agenciescarry out this project.

Under the programme, 1,440 public toilets and 130,000 others for household use will be built or repaired.

Itwill improve the capacity of the central and local administrations inmanaging and supervising rural water supply and environmental hygiene.

Speaking at the launching ceremony, WB CountryDirector in Vietnam Victoria Kwakwa said this is a pilot programmeimplemented in Vietnam in the field of rural clean water andsanitation applying the WB’s new financing instrument which linksdisbursements of funds directly to the delivery of verifiable results.

She said she believes that the success of PforR willmake great contributions to the global development and many countriesin the world will want to learn from Vietnam’s model.-VNA