My back and neck hurt!

(Baonghean) - For a long time, our village of Hỉa and the entire commune have had enough food and clothing. There's no more hunger during the lean season, and we no longer have to endure the biting cold of winter. Every village now has electricity reaching every home. The roads leading to the villages are wider. The hardship weighing heavily on the backs and necks of the villagers now is access to drinking water. It's not just Hỉa village; many other villages in the commune are facing similar difficulties.

I remember seven years ago, the village of Hỉa benefited from the government's Program 134, which provided a self-flowing water source right to the village entrance. Our people were overjoyed. The day the water arrived, it was winter, the weather was bitterly cold, but everyone left their homes and gathered around the village chief's house to warm themselves by the fire, then sang and danced in celebration. With water, we tended our gardens, growing more vegetables to supplement our food. The best part was the mornings and evenings when people from nearby villages came to carry water home. So, people from other villages also benefited from our self-flowing water project...

But for the past few years, the water pipes and the reservoir have been broken. The water no longer flows down, and the villagers have to carry water back on their backs like before. They pooled their money to buy rubber hoses to bring water down from the mountains. But that's only for the rainy season; for the other half of the year, the rubber hoses are useless, and the villagers still have to carry water back!

Many households living on the high hills have even scarcer water, forcing them to use it sparingly. The people of Hỉa village value water more than gold; that's no exaggeration. One basin of water is used for washing rice, rinsing vegetables, and washing dishes. Water is reserved for drinking and cooking, and everything else must be used sparingly, especially rainwater collected in the cement drain, which is only used when absolutely necessary. However, not every family can afford to buy a rainwater collection drain, so sometimes two houses share one.

The villagers have also spent time and money digging wells, and even though they are very deep, there is no water. The luckiest households only have water for a few months each year during the rainy season. So, there's nothing more they can do. The people of Hỉa village and other water-scarce villages in the commune hope that the leaders at all levels will offer solutions so that the villagers no longer have to carry water from far away!

Thu Huong