Vietnam’s central province of Quang Nam has invested over VND51 billion ($2.62 million) in clean water supply and environmental sanitation projects since 2006, said a local official. The province’s Vice Chairman Nguyen Ngoc Quang made the announcement at a meeting to review national target program on rural clean water and hygiene between 2006 and 2010. The projects have helped build 1,295 breeding facilities and 1,153 hygienic latrines, the Dai Bieu Nhan Dan online newspaper reported Dec 21. Up to 387 concentrated clean water supply systems have been put into service in the province so far this year, he added. Vietnam is estimated to have more than 20,000 citizens died of diseases relevant to unhygienic and dirty water yearly, half of the death toll is blamed for diarrhea. The Southeast Asian country targets to raise the rate of rural residents using clean water to 83%-85% and the threshold for rural households having hygienic latrines will be 60% of by the year-end. (Dai Bieu Nhan Dan – People’s Deputy Dec 21 p7)
