Bac Lieu Citizens Suffer from Clean Water Shortage

More than 17,000 citizens in Ganh Hao Town in Bac Lieu Province, who have not had stable clean water supply for years, are looking forward to a water supply plan. To Minh Duong, party secretary of the town's party committee in the southern province, said despite living in an urban area, the people in the town have not had access to clean water for years. Duong said the coastal town faced fresh water shortage, disrupting daily life and production activities. The people had to store rain water, drill wells or buy fresh water to cook and drink, he said. On average, three families share a well and more than 1,000 wells have been drilled in the town. However, according to the environment and natural resources department of Dong Hai District, the amount of iron and manganese in the well water is much higher than the permitted level. Tang Thanh Hien, a resident, said they used well water for bathing and washing only as the water had a high salt content. Hien said she stored rainwater or bought fresh water for cooking and drinking. Nguyen Van Thanh, another resident, said his family spent almost VND200,000 ($ 9) to buy water for cooking every month. The sum is almost equal to the monthly water bill of a family in Hanoi. Meanwhile, the implementation of a private water supply plan that began in the town a few years ago has remained incomplete as the investor has left the project. (Vietnam News Feb 29)