The right to access clean water…

Discuss the issue.clean water for domestic useIn Vinh City, after reading the article "16 years after becoming part of Vinh City, only 42 out of 2346 households in Nghi An commune have access to piped water," published in Nghe An Online Newspaper on September 19, 2024, a colleague expressed his "heartache" and lamented: "We also have a report on this, but it's like pouring water on a lotus leaf. The people seem to have no right to access clean water..."

Hearing about people's right to access clean water, I recall the minutes of the meeting between the Nghi An Commune People's Committee and Nghe An Water Supply Joint Stock Company on May 29, 2024.

The story is that during our investigation into the difficulties regarding access to clean water in Nghi An commune, the local government leaders provided us with quite a lot of documents, including a record titled "Regarding the provision of clean water in Nghi An commune".

In this document, the People's Committee of Nghi An commune cites criterion No. 18 on the quality of living environment (National Criteria for Advanced New Rural Development in the period 2021-2025 issued by the Government in Decision No. 318/QD-TTg dated March 8, 2022), which stipulates the percentage of households using clean water according to standards from the centralized water supply system. Accordingly, they request the Nghe An Water Supply Joint Stock Company to commit to signing contracts and installing water supply systems for 1,420 households by the end of December 2024, corresponding to approximately 60% of the households in the entire area.

The minutes of the meeting, "Regarding the provision of clean water in Nghi An commune," were signed and stamped by a representative of the Nghe An Water Supply Joint Stock Company, indicating their agreement to fulfill the commitment. However, concerns remain regarding the Nghi An Commune People's Committee's proposal to provide clean water services to 60% of households, citing the criteria of advanced new rural development. Is this truly in line with the principle that all citizens have the right to access clean water for daily use? It seems that after 16 years of being incorporated into Vinh City, the people of Nghi An still lack the "status" of citizens of a Class I urban area, and their access to clean water – an extremely essential commodity – remains restricted!

Therefore, we contacted and expressed our concerns to the Chairman of the Nghi An Commune People's Committee, Chu Van Mai. According to Mr. Mai, the commune government understands that all citizens have the right to access clean water for daily use. However, the reality is that although Nghi An commune has been recognized as having completed the advanced new rural development program, it still lacks access to clean water. Therefore, the commune government has set a target corresponding to the advanced new rural development criteria for the Nghe An Water Supply Joint Stock Company to commit to completing, not to restrict the people's right to access clean water.

After explaining, he said sadly, "Actually, they haven't even met this target yet, and there are only a little over three months left in 2024. I just called them, and they said they need to upgrade the system, because the current system can't meet the needs..."

After a few seconds of hesitation, he continued, "But that's just their response; the water in Nghi An is already in the pipeline system, and the water pressure can reach the second and third floors..."

Following discussions with the Chairman of the People's Committee of Nghi An commune, the Department of Construction – the Standing Agency of the Provincial Water Supply Safety Board – contacted the representative. According to the representative, all citizens must be guaranteed the right to access clean water. Therefore, since 2020, the Provincial People's Committee has issued a directive to the People's Committees of districts, cities, and towns to develop water supply plans and sign agreements with water supply units in their respective areas to implement water supply services.

Regarding the Department of Construction, it subsequently issued guidance documents and repeatedly urged implementation. Recently, upon learning of the shortcomings in water supply services from water providers in the districts, especially in Vinh City and its surrounding areas, the Department continued to issue documents urging the People's Committees of districts, cities, and towns, as well as water providers, to implement the directives of the Provincial People's Committee.

This official further explained: “According to Article 31 of Government Decree 117/2007/ND-CP, the water supply service agreement is a legal document between the district-level People's Committee and the water supply unit providing water services in the area. The agreement will stipulate the contents that must be implemented between the water supply unit and the district-level People's Committee, and will serve as the basis for monitoring, inspection, and handling when the water supply unit fails to fulfill the service conditions as prescribed, to ensure the rights of the people…”

Listening to what the representative of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Water Supply Safety Board discussed, I understood that there was some kind of "disagreement" between the Vinh City People's Committee and the Nghe An Water Supply Joint Stock Company, which is why they haven't signed an agreement to provide water supply services. This reminded me of the case of Mr. Le Van Sau's household in Kim Chi flower and ornamental plant village (Nghi An) – who for many years used Facebook and petitions to get his family access to piped water. And I wondered, should other households in Nghi An commune follow the same path as Mr. Le Van Sau?