Rural areas are thirsty for clean water

According to MARD (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), about 84.5 percent of rural people can use hygienic water for daily life. The eastern part of the southern region has the highest number of people with hygienic water (94.5 percent), followed by Red River Delta (91 percent) and Mekong River Delta (88 percent).

The northern part of the central region has the lowest percentage of people accessing hygienic water (81 percent), but this is a region with the fourth highest number of rural people out of seven regions nationwide.

However, a report of the national program on new rural area development shows that though 84.5 percent of rural people can use hygienic water, only 42 percent of the number of households using clean water can meet the MOH (Ministry of Health) standard.

The report also pointed out that only 32 percent of households can use water from concentrated water supply works, while 68 percent get water from drilled and dug wells or rainwater tanks.

Some of the water sources people use is not safe enough as surface and underground water is polluted due to climate change, floods and ineffective environmental protection projects.

The program run by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MONRE) on monitoring water quality in rural areas has found local microbial contamination in water sources. Heavy metal pollution has been found in some areas.

In Thanh Hoa province, 61 out of 74 monitored communes have been found having arsenic content exceeding the permitted level.

In Binh Dinh province, 95 percent of households’ drilled wells were found contaminated with coliform and E-coli at high levels. 

In Hai Phong, 56 percent out of 100 water samples have excessive chlorine which cannot meet hygiene standards. In Dong Nai, more than 40 percent of examined wells have alum. 

According to Hoang Duong Tung, deputy general director of the Environment General Directorate, water pollution in rural areas is increasing because of influences from uncontrolled cultivation, husbandry and industrial production chains, craft villages and emissions from industrial parks.

According to MOH (Ministry of Health), nearly 90 percent of the population is infected with parasitic worms at one time or another. Diarrhea, dysentery, and bacillary dysentery are among the top 10 most infectious diseases, with diarrhea being the sixth most deadly disease. The people most infected with these diseases live in rural areas.

There are 14,991 water supply works in rural areas in the country, worth nearly VND20 trillion, 84.6 percent of which are being managed by local authorities. But 25 percent of the works operate ineffectively.

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Kham Pha