Nghe An: Investors are not interested in clean water in rural areas

Investment capital for water supply is limited and spread out.

Previously, each year, Nghe An rural areas received tens of billions of VND from many investment and sponsorship sources to upgrade water supply infrastructure as well as produce and test water quality to ensure cleanliness and hygiene.

In addition to the sourceNational target program for clean waterand environmental sanitation, there are also projects funded by Danina, loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), UNICEF... but now there is only career capital and integration from the National Target Program for New Rural Development every year. Specifically, the amount is only about 2 billion VND per year, of which 1.617 billion VND is allocated from the budget and 400 million VND from the New Rural Development Program.

The settling tank of the Dien Thap water supply project is under construction but not yet completed due to lack of local counterpart funds. Photo: Nguyen Hai

For the above reasons, although every year, the Provincial Center for Clean Water and Rural Environmental Sanitation still takes water samples from clean water supply plants in rural areas for testing and monitoring, investment in upgrading, repairing and especially communication to raise awareness of using clean water in a hygienic manner is very limited.

In areas with chronic water shortages such as coastal communes of Nghi Loc, Quynh Luu, Hoang Mai Town or Dien Chau, every time the summer comes and it is hot, people have to use clean water at exorbitant prices, on average each 4-5 cubic meter water truck costs around 200,000 VND (50,000 VND/m³). While people in coastal areas and downstream areas lack fresh water for daily life, in mountainous districts, although the State and other funding sources have spent a lot of money to invest in building self-flowing water projects, due to lax management and low maintenance costs, they have deteriorated very quickly.

The above reality combined with climate change, resource exploitation, and indiscriminate deforestation of upstream forests have caused many self-flowing water projects to not be able to retain water upstream, so downstream water tanks have unintentionally lost their function and effectiveness.

Investment and support funds are increasingly limited, making it impossible for the Center and localities to continue upgrading water supply infrastructure or continue implementing unfinished projects to increase the rate of clean water supply to rural areas. Some clean water supply facilities managed by the Center, typically the facilities in Hung Tan and Hung Phuc communes that supply water to 6 communes of Hung Nguyen district, are seriously degraded but there is no source for upgrading or major repairs.

Mr. Tran Van Chien - Deputy Director of Nghe An Center for Clean Water and Rural Environmental Sanitation

The water source at Hung Tan Station is not really clean, making people feel uneasy about drinking water. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Also according to the Center for Rural Water Supply and Environmental Sanitation, from 2012 to present, the whole province has 517 centralized water supply works, of which 29 works operate sustainably, 174 works are relatively sustainable; the remaining 187 works are less sustainable, accounting for 36.2%; 124 works are not operating, accounting for 24.6%.

The National Target Program on clean water and environmental sanitation ended in 2015, but up to now, there are still 15 unfinished and slow-progressing projects, which have greatly affected the water supply target as well as created difficulties in the management and investment in construction of projects.

Solution for 86% of households to use clean water?

According to the target set by the Provincial People's Council Resolution, by 2022, the whole province must have 86% of rural households using hygienic water, currently reaching 85%. Although the above rate is the result of the province's efforts, compared to the national average of 88%, the rate of households using hygienic water in Nghe An is still low and lower than the two neighboring provinces of Thanh Hoa and Ha Tinh, which have reached 95% and 92% respectively.
Although there are more than 6 months left and the target of 1% increase will reach the set target, the implementation in reality is not simple.

In addition to the objective reason that there are 15 unfinished and behind-schedule domestic water supply projects, causing 109,723 people in rural areas to not have clean water for daily use, in the coming time, the Ministry of Health will issue new standards for clean water and hygienic water, according to which quality criteria will be improved.

Unfinished fresh water supply project in Quynh Tho commune. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Currently, clean water and environmental sanitation are business sectors that are encouraged to be socialized for investment, but businesses and investors are not interested. Along with the reason that the investment budget is too spread out, the locality is passive, causing many unfinished projects to have no capital to continue implementation, the large investment level and slow capital recovery are obstacles that make investors have to consider.

Talking to us, representatives of the People's Committees of Quynh Lam and Quynh Tho communes (Quynh Luu) said: Since 2020, the support policies and regimes for lowland communes (Quynh Lam) or coastal communes (Quynh Tho) have no longer been available and as communes have just escaped poverty, local budget revenue cannot be available to respond. Mobilizing people is also extremely difficult, so we can only rely on businesses or loans.
For the above reasons, the province still has 15 unfinished construction projects, of which 6 projects are difficult to solve and it is very difficult to mobilize capital for further investment. Preliminary estimates show that to continue implementing unfinished projects, an amount of 101.1 billion VND is needed, of which the remaining budget capital of the 6 unfinished projects is 57.055 billion VND and local capital, people and other mobilized capital is 44.056 billion VND.

Construction items at the Quynh Tho commune water supply project are unfinished and degraded. Photo: Nguyen Hai

In our opinion, the direct and underlying reason why investors and businesses are not interested in investing in clean water supply is because the profit from this is not much and the capital recovery is slow. Currently, although the price of domestic water in rural areas has been approved by the Provincial People's Committee for sale, the lowest is from 2,500 VND/m³/month up to 9,000 VND/m³/month but unlike urban areas, rural people use tap water quite economically (using other sources) so revenue is quite low.