Thousands of people in the richest commune in Nghe An have been paying for more than 10 years but still do not have clean water.

Waiting for clean water in the middle of... the Capital

For many years now, every time it rains heavily, Ms. Vo Thi Than (43 years old), in Dong Thi hamlet, Do Thanh commune, hastily brings out all the basins and pots in the house to catch the rain, but each time it is only enough for her family of 7 to live on for a day. "Anything we can save is a good thing," said the woman with a haggard face.

Ms. Than is one of thousands of households in Do Thanh commune who are waiting for clean water, even though most of them have paid the commune for more than 10 years. Do Thanh is one of the richest communes in Nghe An province. Ms. Than's small house is nestled among majestic villas. The family has 5 children of school age, so even though the couple works for hire, they only have enough to eat each day. However, for many years now, her family has had to shoulder the additional cost of buying water for daily use.

“Every day my family has to buy a bottle of clean water for 12,000 VND for cooking. For daily activities such as bathing and washing, we still have to accept using dirty water from the well. For many people, that amount of money may not be much, but my family is different,” said Ms. Than.

Ms. Than next to the yellowed water basins after a period of storing water from the well. Photo: Tien Hung

More than 10 years ago, like other households in Do Thanh commune, Ms. Than's family was required by the commune to pay 2.5 million VND to build a clean water plant, after which they would be connected to buy water for use. However, when the plant project was completed, only about half of the households in Do Thanh had access to water. Ms. Than was among the remaining. Ms. Than's family also had a well, but the water from the well, like that of other households, was not clean. "The water from the well changed color after a while. Therefore, my family did not dare to use it for cooking, we could only use it for bathing and washing. Even the water for bathing had to be manually filtered," Ms. Than said, pointing to the aluminum basins that had turned yellow after a short time of being used to hold water from the well.

Next to Ms. Than's house, Mr. Phan Dang The (64 years old) said that at the time of implementing the water plant project, he was the Head of Dong Thi village. According to the direction of the commune, he was responsible for urging households to pay money to build the water plant, so that they could buy clean water for use. However, when the water plant was completed, all households in Dong Thi village were not connected to the pipeline to buy water. "We spent 2.5 million VND but for more than 10 years we have not received a single drop of water. People are very upset and often come to ask. I can only ask the commune. But the commune leaders keep making promises over and over again," Mr. The shook his head in disappointment.

Mr. Le Xuan Vien (63 years old) said that Do Thanh commune needs to urgently return the money to the people. “The water source here is often polluted, and buying clean water for daily use is very expensive. The problem we need to know is where the money we paid more than 10 years ago went? We paid to use water, and if we don’t have it, we still have to return the money. That’s all, but no one can answer that,” Mr. Vien said indignantly.

Many households have to build rainwater tanks. Photo: Tien Hung

The factory only supplies enough water for half the commune but collects money from the whole commune.

According to the reporter's investigation, in response to the people's needs, in 2011, the People's Committee of Do Thanh commune submitted a proposal for investment policy for the project to build a domestic water supply system for Do Thanh commune. According to the estimate, the total investment of this project is more than 28 billion VND. Of which, the capital from the central budget is 60% (nearly 17 billion VND), the rest is from the commune's budget.

According to the leaders of Do Thanh commune, due to the commune's limited budget, they had to mobilize people to contribute. At that time, Do Thanh commune had more than 3,200 households in 14 villages, each household was forced to pay 2.5 million VND. The commune collected this amount in 5 installments, lasting 2 and a half years. Every half year, each household had to pay 500,000 VND.

“After that, 2,902 households in 14 villages paid the money, with a total amount of more than 5.3 billion VND. Among them, many households have not paid the full 2.5 million VND and more than 300 households have not paid any money,” said the accountant of Do Thanh commune, adding that during the project implementation, the capital from the central budget was cut, with only 7.5 billion VND disbursed.

Therefore, up to now, although the water plant has been completed and put into operation for many years, the investor, Do Thanh commune, has only paid the construction unit more than 13 billion VND. This is the amount of money from the central budget plus more than 5.3 billion VND contributed by the people and more than 600 million VND from the commune budget. In total, the investor still owes the construction unit about 15 billion VND.

According to the approved project scale, this water plant only has a capacity of 677m3/day and night, ensuring domestic water for 1,801 households, but the commune collects money from all households in the area, equivalent to about 3,200 households. Photo: Tien Hung

According to the reporter's investigation, in the decision approving the investment project to build a domestic water supply system for Do Thanh commune, this water plant only has a capacity of 677m³/day and night; ensuring domestic water supply for 8,430 people with 1,801 households and agencies and organizations in the area. However, it is unclear why when implementing the project, the leaders of Do Thanh commune required all households in the commune to pay money with the promise of being provided with water? When the project was approved in 2011, Do Thanh commune had up to 3,200 households.

Discussing this issue, Mr. Luyen Xuan Hue - Chairman of the People's Committee of Do Thanh commune said that the commune leaders at that time might have collected money from all households because they were considering the plan to immediately implement phase 2. But unexpectedly, up to now, phase 1 still owes the construction unit up to 15 billion VND.

According to Mr. Hue, the water plant was completed and put into operation in 2017. It has sold domestic water to 7 out of 14 villages in the area. However, the project has not yet been finalized. “The locality is responsible for this problem. We also hope that people will sympathize and share with the locality. To solve this problem, in the coming time, we will finalize the project and then ask for capital to pay the remaining debt to the construction unit. After that, we will continue to seek investment approval for phase 2 to supply water to the remaining households,” said Mr. Hue.

Regarding the fact that many households have asked the commune to return their money because they have paid for more than 10 years but still have not received a drop of clean water, Mr. Luyen Xuan Hue said that this is impossible. “The entire amount collected from the people, the commune government at that time used to pay the construction unit. Now the commune does not know where to get the money to pay back. We have no choice but to continue asking for capital to invest in phase 2,” said the Chairman of the People's Committee of Do Thanh commune.