Setting Up a Model for Community Drinking Water Quality Management System in Selected Villages in Viet Nam (March 2007)
Summary
Bacteriological and chemical contaminants are common problems of drinking water in Viet Nam. This is manifested by high cases of diarrhoea and other waterborne diseases. The World Health Organization estimated that 80% of the human being diseases are associated with using water. In an estimation of the Vietnamese Ministry of Health, there are only 30% populations in the rural area who have accessed to fresh water and only 10% of those water sources meet the National Hygienic Standards for drinking water. In the rural areas of Viet Nam, the supply of clean water by public system – tap water has been still very limited. Most households use the groundwater through tube-wells or surface water from streams, rivers, canals, lakes or raining water for drinking and domestic uses. Recently, arsenic contamination has been found in many groundwater sources in some areas in Red Delta River and Mekong Delta River which were in a manifolds levels higher than the limited values of the WHO Guideline value (10 ppb) and as common as the iron contamination.
Therefore, the supply of fresh water for the communes in the rural areas has been identified as a priority of government as declared in the National Strategy to 2020 for supplying clean water and sanitation. However, the strategy is only successful by the socialization in the community participation in safe water management systems. Not only clean water sources are important, but also the improvement of perception of safe water and water-related hygienic practices of the community has significant affects for success of the strategy.
To protect people from health effects of poor water quality, a model for community drinking water quality management system in selected villages has been studied and initiated for replication later on.