Ban Cang lacks clean water

(Baonghean) - Being the central village of Chau Tien commune, Quy Hop district, for many years, Cang villagers have had to live without clean water. Mr. Lang Van Anh - village chief said: "The village has 96 households, mainly Thai and Tho people. More than 2/3 of the households do not have clean water to use, they have to ask for or buy it."

Ban Cang is located close to mineral mines, the spring water is heavily polluted. Many households drill wells, the underground water when pumped up is still murky. Families who can afford it build large settling tanks to collect rainwater for later use. However, most of the people here still have many difficulties and shortages, so they can only save up to build small water tanks. In the summer, they have to buy well water from surrounding villages. During the peak of the heat, the underground water level drops, many people buy, so people have to endure "living with dirt".

People in Cang village have to carry water on their backs while the clean water project is abandoned.

Ms. Hoang Thi Thuy - Principal of Chau Tien Primary School, a school located in Cang village, shared: "In the 2012-2013 school year, the Department of Education and Training of Quy Hop district supported 10 million VND to drill a well, but the result was that there was still no water to use because it was too turbid, so we had to build a settling tank to water the plants. As for drinking water for students and teachers, we had to buy it for 100,000 VND/month. When many people were pumping, the water dripped, so teachers had to carry cans to people's houses to ask for water for cooking. If they wanted to bathe, they had to ride motorbikes to other villages."

During the rainy season, the water pipeline system is often severely damaged, and people have to rely on rainwater. Mr. Vu Dinh Viet, in Cang village, lamented: "Cang village has many streams and abundant underground water, but unfortunately the water source is so heavily polluted that building settling tanks is useless."

It is known that Cang village has had a clean water project under the Government's Program 135. But the historic flood in 2009 washed away the entire pipeline system, and since then the water tank has been left alone, covered with moss. Since then, people have been living in a state of water shortage but have no one to complain to. Cang village people do not have enough funds to fix the problem, waiting for the local government to intervene, but nothing has happened...

Article and photos:Nguyen Le