Among Bien Hoa city’s 26 wards and communes, only two downtown wards – Thanh Binh and Quang Vinh – have , up to now, had 100% of the households which are using clean water. Only 33% to over 90% of the households of the rest are using clean water whereas Trang Dai ward has only 33% of its households which are using clean water and this percentage in Ho Nai is 49%.
Looking forward to clean water!
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Dong Nai water supply company’s workers are installing the water supply system in Bien Hoa city
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The residential areas with the households the one next to the other which haven’t had access to clean water are the hamlets 20, 28, 29 and 30 of quarter 2 in Tan Mai ward. These areas have hundreds of households and houses in close proximity to each other but still have to use well water. Mr Nguyen Cong Danh who lives in hamlet 20 said: "My family has been living here for over 30 years. In the past, this area was not populated, so all households used well water. Nobody complained about this. But more and more houses have been built for 10 years or so. Each family has 4 to 5 members but the wells are inside their houses and close to the toilets. Most of us drink boiled water but we can’t avoid feeling nauseous when seeing a layer of sediment in the water.”
Like those in hamlet 20, many residents from other hamlets of quarter 2 in Tan Mai ward has had no access to clean water until now. These families lament that they are living in the city but it is not different from living in the rural areas. When the rainy season comes, many families must get rain water for use. There were years when it was blazing hot and the wells in some areas ran dry, the residents had to pump the water out of the wells for use several times a day.
In reality, everybody keeps having to use well water. As Mr Mai Han Hanh – Head of the Fatherland Front Committee of quarter 2 said, the local authorities suggested the functional agencies build clean water supply systems to provide clean water for the residents in quarter 2. The water supply company’s staff didn’t make a field survey and then call a meeting for the residents to discuss the plans to lay the water pipes until late 2008. But up to the present, plans have remained plans!
*How to bring clean water to everywhere?
One leader of Dong Nai water supply one-member limited liability company (or water supply company) asserted that it made a big effort to develop a clean water supply network in Bien Hoa city. However, Dong Nai water supply industry has run into a lot of difficulties recently. Particularly, from 2004 to the present, the province has kept applying the water pricing structure – VND2,400 / m³ – for the first 16 cubic meters whereas the neighboring provinces and cities such as Binh Duong, Ba Ria - Vung Tau and Ho Chi Minh have increased their water price. Presently, the running water supply system provides approximately 195,000 m³ out of 220,000 m³ of the design capacity for the whole province every day. Bien Hoa alone is supplied with more than 119,000 m³. On the one hand, this has showed that the costs of the reinvestment in facilities are huge. Also, the costs of the materials and equipment to lay the new water pipes have, in general, increased many times. On the other hand, the interest rate of the credit loans is not in accordance with the company’s production capacity and business. Therefore, the investment in building a new water supply system to provide clean water for the households at a higher rate has encountered a lot of difficulties. Moreover, water supply projects must follow the approved town plannings. However, it is impossible to set up a water supply system because several roads within the province and Bien Hoa city haven’t been upgraded and widened. Thus, most areas which haven’t got clean water are inside narrow alleys.
According to the water supply company's plans, in 2009, the two approved investment projects, to build up the water supply networks in Hiep Hoa and Tan Van communes in Bien Hoa city, which cost VND3 billion each, will be carried out. As for the areas which haven’t got clean water in four wards: An Binh, Tam Hiep, Tan Mai and Tan Hiep, the company is planning an investment project. “Currently, we are looking forward to the province’s guidelines on increasing water prices. If the province approves of our increasing water prices, it will be one of the necessary conditions for us to accelerate the progress of expanding the clean water supply network in Bien Hoa city!" stressed a leader of the water supply company.
(Reported by Dong Nai newspaper, Translated by Duy Minh)
