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Urgent need for clean water
For many years, local people at communes of Cat Nhon, Cat Tien, Cat Thang, Cat Chanh, Cat Hung (Phu Cat district); Phuoc Thang, Phuoc Hoa (Tuy Phuoc district) have faced an urgent problem of clean water scarcity.
Underground water resources are contaminated with alum and salt while surface water resources are polluted by industrial disposals or wastes from breeding activities.
“Communes at Dong region of Phu Cat district haven’t had large-scale water supply work, leading to severe lack of the clean water. Rate of local people with waterborne diseases is high because they access no clean water,” says Mr. Luong Ngoc Anh, Vice Chairman of Phu Cat People’s Committee.
From 1996 to 2004, the provincial government had invested tens of billions of VND to build water supply plants at communes of Phuoc Son, Phuoc Quang and Phuoc Nghia (Tuy Phuoc district).
The program aimed to supply clean water to local households at the Dong region of Tuy Phuoc district. The district government also invested billions of VND in expanding the water supply pipes, gradually meeting the urgent need for the clean water of the local people.
Yet, the plants are still at low capacity and the pipe network hasn’t expanded to remote areas. Communes of Phuoc Thang, Phuoc Hoa and some hamlets at Phuoc Thuan communes haven’t accessed to the clean water. Particularly in Phuoc Thang, more than 82% of the local households often use unclean water.
Speed up the progress rate of the project on water supply
The project on construction of water supply service at Phu Cat is part of the Belgium-financed Water Supply and Hygiene Project in 2011. It aims to supply clean water for the local people at Dong region in 2 districts of Phu Cat and Tuy Phuoc.
Most of the work locates in Phu Cat and Binh Dinh Department of Agriculture and Rural Development acts as investor.
t comprises components: raw water pumping station and raw water intake pipeline system; water treatment plant; pressurized pumping station; electricity lines for operation control and lighting; 22KV electricity transmission line, transformer station, 0.4 KV electricity gridline and 189,966m-long pipeline all over 7 communes of Cat Nhon, Cat Tien, Cat Thang, Cat Chanh, Cat Hung, Phuoc Thang and Phuoc Hoa.
Total investment of is 116.985 billion VND, including the Belgium grant aid and fund from Vietnam’s National Target Program for Rural Clean Water Supply and Sanitation, from the provincial budget and from budgets of the beneficiary districts.
The work is expected to complete and put into operation by the end of 2013, providing water which meets criteria of QCVN: 01/2009/BYT by Department of Health to the above-mentioned communes with total population of 84,375 in dry and rainy seasons until 2020.
At a recent meeting with Steering Committee of the provincial Water Supply and Hygiene, Vice Chairman of Binh Dinh People’s Committee, Mr. Ho Quoc Dung directed relevant authorities and local governments of the two districts of Phu Cat and Tuy Phuoc to speed up the project’s progress rate, satisfying the urgent need for clean water of the local people.
The construction of the water supply service at Phu Cat has been on the right track, says Mr. Ho Dac Chuong, Director of Binh Dinh Centre for Rural Clean Water and Sanitation. The project’s land clearance and compensation has basically completed. 13 components of construction and facility/equipment provision, 1 component of supervision the construction have been put out to tender. 7 of which are being implemented.
The centre will continue to evaluate the bids and accept the rest bids. With the current progress rate, the water supply service will definitely finish and be put into operation by the first quarter of 2013.
Tien Sy
(MONRE)