Clean water proves success of aid

Photo shows the water treatment system of Dung Quat Water Factory in Binh Tri Comune, Binh Son District in central Quang Ngai Province. The ouput-based aid approach ia said to be working in the mobilisation of capital for rural water programmes. —VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Long

HA NOI — The output-based aid approach was an innovative way to mobilise capital from enterprises and individual households to invest in rural water programmes, said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Dao Xuan Hoc.

The output-based aid (OBA) approach, or performance-based aid, is a development aid strategy that ties the disbursement of public funding to the achievement of clearly specified results. It was first used in Viet Nam in November 2007 with projects aimed at enhancing rural water systems in the Central Region and Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta.

According to Nguyen Minh Chau, country director of the East Meets West Foundation which piloted the mechanism, to ensure that quality water systems are implemented, recipients are reimbursed 80 per cent of their initial outlay once the infrastructure is in place and the remaining 20 per cent after six months if it works properly.

Chau said the organisation would only provide funds to enterprises that failed to meet standards after proposing the construction of water plants, distribution pipelines, household connections, water metres and water pressures.

In 10 months, 24 businesses in the Mekong Delta's Tien Giang Province, where the project was piloted, were involved in providing water to 7,304 households, consisting of 29,320 individuals, said vice director of Water Resources Department Tran Dinh Hoang.

The total reimbursment was about VND13.5 billion (US$6.75 million), 80 per cent of which had already been disbursed. The local people contributed VND3.8 billion ($190,000).

Hoang recommended that due to the enterprises' limited financial capacity, it would be better to reimburse them earlier so they could repay their debts and reclaim ownership of their land.

Nguyen Van Kha, director of An Thien Company, said the OBA project had been implemented for nearly six months, the biggest challenge was the timing of reimbursements — it took nine months for the company to receive the full reimbursement.

To date, the OBA project has provided 21,000 households and 10,000 sanitation plants access to clean water. — VNS

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Comedian Xuan Bac becomes goodwill ambassador

HA NOI — Comedian Nguyen Xuan Bac was officially announced yesterday as the 2010-11 goodwill ambassador for Rural Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation, said Dao Xuan Hoc, deputy minister of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Bac was invited to play the role of an ambassador by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Lien Aid and UNICEF.

As a goodwill ambassador, Bac, 34 is expected to participate in on-site activities and to be a guest of honour at public and mass media events in order to deliver messages designed to raise public awareness about using clean water and hygienic latrines, and to help change human behaviours around water safety in rural areas.

Bac promised to send messages from the Rural Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation Sector widely and effectively to people in rural areas, with a particular focus on children.

More than 20,000 people, most of them children, die each year due to unclean water and poor sanitation in Viet Nam. Almost half of those deaths can be attributed to diarrhoea, the World Health Organisation reported.

Viet Nam has plans to provide clean water to about 83-85 per cent of rural households and build hygienic latrines in 60 per cent of rural households by the end of the year. — VNS

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Water works makes waves

Ethnic minorities in Nhat Tien Commune, Bac Son District in northern Lang Son Province gain access to clean water. All localities will be equipped with water quality management units by 2020. — VNA/VNS Photo Dinh Tran

HA NOI — A newly-announced VND320 billion (US$16.4 million) programme will ensure that all of Viet Nam's cities and provinces will have water-quality-management units within five years.

And the units will be of international standard by 2020.

The Water Quality Management Programme is part of an effort to promote and sustain the achievements of the National Strategy for Clean Water and Environment Sanitation.

Purpose of the programme was to provide 85 per cent of rural residents with potable water by 2010, National Centre for Clean Water and Environmental Sanitation deputy director Nguyen Thanh Luan told a workshop to introduce and initiate its implementation in Ha Noi yesterday.

Just 18 of Viet Nam's 63 provinces had water-quality testing facilities, he said.

Most were newly-established, poorly equipped and had yet to meet appropriate standards.

Appropriate national and local mechanisms for the effective management of water and environmental sanitation; funds and the necessary construction were also missing.

Nine projects

The money for the programme would be disbursed through nine key projects so that all rural residents had access to potable water by 2020, said deputy director Luan.

The Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry had made a variety of proposals to ensure the targets are met.

But priority would be given to the monitoring of all sources of rural water supply and increasing their standardisation from the prevailing 40 to 100 per cent by 2020.

The ministry would begin the building of eight trial standardised testing centres in different ecological regions next year.

Projects to enhance quality control and management capability in all cities and provinces would follow with information about water usage included in a data base as a comprehensive national source.

The programme would also research and trial the application of scientific and technologic methods in monitoring water quality at households in particular terrain or in special social and economic conditions, said Deputy Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry Dao Xuan Hoc.

International co-operation could work through various models including bilateral, multilateral and co-operation with non-government organisations, he said.

The ministry had asked the General Irrigation Department to take key responsibility for the programme's implementation and management.

The People's Committees of all the country's 63 cities and provinces were also responsible for managing their rural water quality.

United Nation Children's Fund, UNICEF, representative Craig Burgess emphasised the ministry's commitment to rural water quality and said he expected a sound implementation of the programme.

The ministry had realised the poor water quality in rural Viet Nam and taken the lead in the development and approval of the water quality management programme, he said.

But more important than the launch of the programme was how the ministry supported the sub-national effort and how each province, district, commune and individual went about improving water quality for all users, he said.

Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry figures show that only 30 per cent of rural water supply meets Health Ministry water-quality standards.

A 2006 Health Ministry survey found that water at only 15.6 per cent of rural households met its standards and of these only 29 per cent met the micro biological standards and 56.5 per cent the chemical standards.

UNICEF estimates that only 2.8 million out of 18 million rural children have access to Health Ministry-standard water.

The Northern and Central Highlands and the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta are the worse regions, it says. — VNS

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