VietNamNet Bridge - More than 60 percent of residents in suburban districts of Hanoi still do not have tap water. 

 

Duong Van Kho, 60, in Noi hamlet of Van Hoang commune in Phu Xuyen district, has changed the filtration unit of his water filter, though he just bought the machine two months ago. He had been told to replace the unit once every six months.

Kho said the underground water provided by the commune was not secure enough because the water source is near Nhue river.

“Only the water at the depth of over 40 meters can be used. However, as you can see, the filtration film is still getting black. This means that the water is not safe enough,” he said.

Kho, like the other local residents in the hamlet, feel insecure about the quality of the water they use daily, especially when 30 locals have died because of cancer in the last 10 years.

Nguyen Dinh Tuan in Chuyen My commune of Phu Xuyen district complained that his family has been using unsafe water from drilled water well for the last many years.

Medical workers last year visited the hamlet and took water samples for testing. 

They found that the arsenic content was 2-3 times higher than the allowed level. 

However, no solution to improve the situation has been implemented since the conclusion was released.

The residents in Gia Lam suburb district, which is closest to the capital city, still have five communes and towns where zero percent of people can use clean water. 

In Phu Dong commune, only 1.74 percent of people have clean water; the figure is 1.46 percent in Ninh Hiep and 8.22 percent in Kim Lam.

Nguyen Thi Duyen in Kim Son commune complained that she has to spend big money to buy clean water tanks for daily use, because the water from drilled wells is not safe enough for cooking.

The deputy chair of Gia Lam district confirmed that Kim Son commune has water seriously contaminated with iron. 

Since the local residents still don’t have tap water, they have to build over 4,300 water supply works themselves. However, the water shortage is still serious.

A report showed that there are 106 clean water supply stations in rural areas, of which only 81 are operational, which can provide water to 300,000 people. 

The other 25 stations have stopped working, including 10 stations built in the 1990s which have become seriously damaged. 

According to the Hanoi agriculture department, 36.68 percent of locals in rural areas could use clean water by the end of 2014, while the figure is hoped to rise to 40 percent by the end of 2015.

Tin Tuc