Mr. Son: People are not comfortable using tap water.

(Baonghean)For the past 4 years, Mr. Le Quang Vinh's family - Block 5, Anh Son Town has always been proactive in using well water and rainwater for drinking and daily activities. Each month, the amount of tap water used by his family fluctuates around 4 cubic meters, equivalent to about 20 thousand VND/month.

He said: “Tap water used to make tea has a white film floating on it, the bottom of the cup is cloudy and harder to drink than well water, so my family only uses tap water for washing.” Mr. Vinh gave evidence by showing two bowls of the same brightness, using two water sources: tap water and well water. The bowl of tap water gradually turned cloudy, while the bowl of well water remained much clearer. This is the reality that people in Block 5 in general have reported about the quality of tap water.

Anh Son Town Kindergarten is one of the units that uses a large amount of tap water from Anh Son Water Supply Station, an average of nearly 90 cubic meters/month, and in the summer it can even reach 120 cubic meters/month. The whole school currently has 240 students, 22 teachers and staff, all of whom live at the school all day.



The town kindergarten invested in water filters for use.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Be - Principal, said: “When we first used tap water, we used it to boil water but it had a white scum like lime, the boiled water was cloudy so we could not drink it directly. Feeling uneasy, for nearly 5 years now, the school has invested in building a rainwater tank and a water filter to serve the children and the school's teachers and staff. The filter tank operates continuously throughout the day, and the cleaning staff who use tap water for cooking must go through a filter.”

Anh Son Water Plant is currently responsible for supplying water to over 800 customers in 6/7 blocks of the town, hamlet 1 Phuc Son, hamlet 2 Thach Son; the average capacity of the water supply station is over 500 cubic meters/day and night; the water price is calculated at 5,700 VND/cubic meter for residents, over 8,000 VND/cubic meter for administrative and public agencies. In the hot season, the station operates at full capacity. After more than 12 years of supplying water to serve the needs of consumers, the water source from the plant, through the testing results of the Food Safety and Hygiene Department, meets the permitted consumption and living standards, promptly meeting the water use needs in the area.

However, after investigation, the leader of the town People's Committee said that the initial plan to exploit Lam River water to supply water for the town's people could not be implemented, and the selection of an underground water exploitation site on Lien Co hill (near the district's political training center) was implemented. The depth of the well can reach the quarry, so the long-term exploitation of water sources is inevitably contaminated with alum and lime.

Through discussions with the management staff of Anh Son town's water supply station, the leaders of the town's People's Committee learned that: Based on the current situation of polluted underground water sources, Anh Son district has developed a project plan to upgrade the water plant, change the water exploitation source; the project is invested by the district People's Committee. The scale of the project is to ensure expansion to water supply along National Highway 7, through Hoi Son, the Cement Factory area. However, for nearly 4 years, the project has only stopped within the framework of selecting the exploitation area at Kim Nhan hill. The reason is that the funding source for the project to upgrade and treat the new water supply source is too large, the contribution level of the people is high, in the condition that the State has no support, so the implementation of the project is still a difficult problem.

Luong Mai