Thirst for clean water in coastal areas of Nghe An
(Baonghean) - To have clean water to use, people in the coastal villages of Quynh Luu (Nghe An) spent millions of dong to install water pipes from the factory. However, after a short time, there has been no water supply, so for more than 10 years, people have been struggling due to lack of clean water.
"Cherish" every drop of water
An Hoa is a coastal commune of Quynh Luu district with a population of over 13,000 people, most of whom make a living from salt production. The entire commune has 14 villages, of which 7 are located in saline areas, so for many years now, people have not been able to use groundwater for drinking. Many families have well water, but it is salty so they only use it for washing.
Lacking fresh water, people can only rely on rainwater or buy fresh water from other localities.
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| To have clean water for use, people in An Hoa commune (Quynh Luu) built tanks to store rainwater, but it was still not enough due to the prolonged heat. Meanwhile, coastal communes in Quynh Luu have salty underground water, so even if houses have wells, they cannot use it for drinking, only for washing. Photo: Viet Hung |
“More than 10 years ago, people in this area were excited when a clean water system was connected directly to every alley. However, for many reasons, the water source is no longer brought here.”
To have fresh water for daily use, households in the coastal area of Quynh Luu all build a rainwater tank in their house. However, in coastal areas, due to limited land and high population density, the area for building a tank is not large, so they have to use it sparingly.
If the drought lasts long, every house will run out of water and will be forced to buy water from elsewhere at high prices.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong, resident of Hamlet 5, Son Hai Commune, said: “The water source is salty, so my family had to build a tank to store rainwater for use. It’s bearable during the rainy season, but in the summer, we have to be careful with each bucket of water…”
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| Quynh Luu has more than 900 offshore fishing boats, each trip requires about 10 - 15 cubic meters of fresh water. Photo: Viet Hung |
Lack of water for daily activities is already difficult and struggling, so providing fresh water for fishing boats in coastal communes of Son Hai, Quynh Long, Tien Thuy... is even more difficult.
It is known that a fishing boat, in addition to the cost of fuel, food, labor..., has long had to add the cost of fresh water. Normally, a fishing boat has to buy fresh water for 500,000 - 700,000 VND.
Lack of fresh water supply
In 2004, with the attention of the Party and the State, the clean water project for people in the coastal area of Quynh Luu was invested and implemented. Son Hai commune alone completed the installation of clean water pipelines to households in November 2007.
However, for some reason, clean water only came for the first few days, and then it stopped coming. Over a long period of time, the water pipes were left unused, rusted, and seriously degraded.
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| For the past 12 years, Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh in Son Hai commune (Quynh Luu) has had to carry fresh water from other places for daily use. Photo: VH |
“The clean water project is invested by the Commune People's Committee with a total investment of 4.2 billion VND. Currently, the commune has collected 800 million VND from households in the whole commune to build water pipes. However, because the project has not been handed over, there is no clean water yet...”.
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| Supplying fresh water to fishing boats. Photo: VH |
In An Hoa commune, in 2004, people also contributed to complete the installation of water pipes from Cau Giat town to people's homes. However, at first there was water, but then... there was no water.
Mr. Le Xuan Quyet - Vice Chairman of An Hoa Commune People's Committee said that the reason why tap water did not reach households was because the capacity of Quynh Luu water plant was not enough to supply to remote localities. In this situation, the Commune People's Committee is holding a meeting with the people, collecting opinions to complete procedures, and signing a contract with Hoang Mai town water plant to supply clean water to the people.
The lack of clean water is a very difficult situation for the lives of people in coastal communes of Quynh Tho, An Hoa, Tien Thuy, Quynh Thuan... Through surveys and measurements of groundwater indexes in these localities, the results show that the water is salty and contaminated with iron. Therefore, while waiting for the construction unit to install water pipes from other places, households need to proactively store rainwater and build water filtration systems to limit salinity and stabilize their lives.
