Many households in Kiên Giang Province’s An Biên District have to buy large water pots to store clean water for household use because they have no access to tap water.– VNA/VNS Photo Lê Sen

KIÊN GIANG – About 5,600 households in Kiên Giang Province’s An Biên District lack access to clean water and have to harvest rainwater or buy clean water from other areas, according to the district’s People’s Committee.

In the Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta district, only 9,982 households, or nearly 33 per cent of its population, have access to tap water.

According to Lê Thanh Phê, secretary of the Đồng Giữa Hamlet Party Cell in the district’s Nam Thái Commune, the hamlet has 343 households but only 100 have access to clean water for household use.

The remaining households without access to clean water have to harvest rainwater and store water for use year round or buy clean water from other places.

Võ Văn Trường, who lives in Đồng Giữa Hamlet, said people living in the coastal area were concerned because water resources are affected by alum and saline intrusion in the dry season.

People in the hamlet need access to tap water.

In many areas in the district, ground water resources are affected by saline intrusion, so people can not drill bore wells for clean water.

In addition, a number of households living in areas with tap water supply do not have enough money to install water pines and a water metre to access the tap water network.

In recent years, the province has invested in clean-water supply projects to increase access to a number of households in the district.

In 2017, the province’s People’s Committee built a water supply station in Nam Yên Commune’s 3 Biển Hamlet to supply clean water to 5,860 households in Nam Yên, Tây Yên, Tây Yên A, Nam Thái and Nam Thái A communes.

The station has a daily capacity of 2,500 cu.m and a pipe network of 230 km.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment’s Water Resources Institute and the HCM City Development Joint Stock Commercial Bank donated to build two water supply projects in Nam Thái Commune to supply free water this year.

The district has a total of five concentrated water supply stations which provide tap water for 9,982 households, or nearly 33 per cent of its population.

Tô Thanh Đoàn, deputy chairman of the district’s People’s Committee, said the lack of clean water for household use, especially in coastal communes, was the most serious problem.

The province’s Clean Water and Environmental Sanitation Centre was expected to ask the People’s Committee to allocate funds to supply tap water for the district's households, he said.– VNS