A meeting to kick-start a $50-million clean water supply and environmental sanitation project funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) opened in Vietnam’s central province of Quang Binh on Sept 9. Of the sum, $45 million comes from the ADB and the rest from the Vietnamese side’s reciprocal capital, the state-run Vietnam News Agency said. The project, is slated to be implemented from now until 2016, will focus on building and improving clean water and sanitation services for 350,000 rural residents in six central coastal provinces of Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Nam and Binh Dinh. In the first phase, the project will include six pilot sub-projects and build between six and nine new sub-projects per year. The project is part of a national strategy on supplying clean water in rural areas with an aim to improve health and living conditions of locals. Vietnam targets to help all of its rural population gain access to tap water by 2020, compared to the current rate of 40%. The ADB will lend $1 billion to water supply and drainage projects in the Southeast Asian country in the 2010-2020 period. (vietnamplus.vn Sept 9)
