Thousands of households living by Gianh River, in Quang Binh Province have been forced to use unhealthy filtration systems causing many to seek water from nearby localities.



Nguyen Cuong, Head of Quang Loc Commune’s Con Se Village said, “Our village has 670 households with more than 3,500 people. Most of them are fishermen. Because we don't have an adequate source of clean water, most of them have to buy from nearby localities dozens of kilometres away. On average a household might buy 3-5 cubic metres of water at a high price, about VND70,000-150,000 (USD3.3-7.1) per cubic metre, and  they often have to reserve the water in advance to make sure they will have enough."

Still, people are not sure about the safety of the water they do buy, since many companies sell water, filtered by unknown means, passing it off as spring water.

“Because clean water cannot be found here, so I have to buy. Due to high price, my family with five members use it very economically, only use for cooking and drinking. Bathing and washing use alum and salinity water. I still feel lucky because my family has clean water to use”, a local man said.

Many other communes in the south of Quang Trach District also suffer from this situation. Quang Hai has a population of 687 households and more than 3,000 people, all of whom have to purchase water.

Being an underprivelaged area makes the payments for this necessity much harder, especially during dry seasons, when prices can go up to VND70,000 (USD3.3), while during droughts prices may climb to VND100,000-130,000 (USD4.7-6.2) per cubic metre.

Although a clean water project was approved for these areas in 2008, to the tune of EUR11 million, supposed to be financed by Hungarian ODA, it has been at a stand-still. The project was slated to be finished and in operation by 2013.

The Quang Trach District People’s Committee and the project’s management board are trying to speed up progress on the project, and hope to restart work in the third quarter this year.

Dtnews