Poor neighborhood happy to receive clean water

Village chief Lo Van Phap said that Dong Kho Dong Tho village has 354 households with 1,500 people, a difficult area with more than 98% of Thai ethnic people living there. The village was established in 2019 after merging from 3 villages: Dong Kho, Dong Tho and Duong Le. With the arid mountainous terrain, people's lives still face many difficulties, infrastructure is still lacking. The most lacking is probably clean water for daily activities.

In previous years, to have water for daily use, people in Dong Kho Dong Tho hamlet had to walk to the source of the stream of Dong Ai hill, nearly 4km away, to carry water for use. In the rainy season, the water was muddy, in the dry season the stream dried up. For large families, sometimes carrying water for half a day still did not have enough water for daily use. Life became more difficult because of that. Many households invested tens of millions of dong to hire people to drill wells, but because of the rocky terrain and high alum content, the water could not be used.

Dong Kho Dong Tho Hamlet is located on mountainous terrain, making it very difficult to drill wells to find clean water sources. Photo: Dang Quy

Understanding those difficulties, in March this year, with the support of the Steering Committee of the Tan Ky District's skillful People's Movement, Tan Ky District Youth Union coordinated with the Traffic Police Department Youth Union of Nghe An Province to call for and support the construction of the "Self-flowing water system" project for the local people. At the end of the campaign period, more than 230 million VND was raised.

With the support of the Steering Committee of the emulation movement of skillful mass mobilization at the provincial and district levels and the contributions of the people, the total amount of donations and mobilization to build the project has reached 850 million VND.

Mr. Lo Van Mao (born in 1963, Dong Kho Dong Tho village) at the source of the self-flowing water system. Photo: Dang Quy

The self-flowing water project is built along two branches leading water from the reservoir on top of Dong Ai hill to two community water tanks at Dong Kho and Dong Tho clusters. Each branch is estimated to be nearly 4km long, crossing many steep hills. The two main water tanks have capacities of 105.6m3 and 52.8m3 respectively. From the main tank, there will be small branches to connect to supply water to the people.

Looking at the project being implemented in a systematic manner, Mr. Lo Van Mao (born in 1963), a prestigious person in Dong Kho Dong Tho hamlet, could not hide his joy and said that as soon as the local authorities announced that the village had been supported to carry out the self-flowing water project, the villagers were extremely excited. Some contributed labor, some donated land, some contributed construction materials to work together.

In the past, people spontaneously tried to build a self-flowing water system without a blueprint, the construction had no steel braces, no pillars, and the plastic pipes were shallow in some places, leading to deterioration. Now, every step is carried out scientifically and meticulously. Now, when seeing clean water flowing into their homes, the villagers feel extremely happy and grateful to the agencies and units that have supported them.

Water pipeline system and reservoir at the source. Photo: Nghia Dung Commune People's Committee

The water tank in Dong Kho Dong Tho hamlet was built solidly and cleanly to supply water to the people. Photo: Dang Quy

Sharing with the people, comrade Hoang Thi Trang - Secretary of Tan Ky District Youth Union said that for a long time, the local government and Party committees have always been concerned about building a self-flowing water system to serve all the people in the poor hamlet of Dong Kho Dong Tho, but the large funding source has made it impossible to implement.

However, that concern was resolved when implementing Plan No. 43-KH/BCĐ, dated June 10, 2021 of the Steering Committee of the District's Skillful Mass Mobilization Emulation Movement on building a model of Skillful Mass Mobilization in ethnic minority areas, Tan Ky District Youth Union together with the Steering Committee of the Skillful Mass Mobilization Emulation Movement at all levels and the Youth Union of the Traffic Police Department of Nghe An Provincial Police have coordinated to implement the project. Notably, during the construction of this system, 30 youth union members of Nghia Dung commune actively contributed working days and mobilized their families to participate in the implementation in an extremely effective manner.

Inauguration ceremony of the self-flowing water project to Dong Kho Dong Tho village, Nghia Dung commune, Tan Ky district. Photo: Thanh Quynh

On December 23, the project was officially put into use, bringing great encouragement to the people. At the same time, it makes people more confident in the guidelines, policies and guidelines of the Party and the State; actively contribute to the cause of socio-economic development, ensuring national security and defense, and social order. The results of the project also contribute to the successful implementation of the National Target Program on Clean Water and Rural Environmental Sanitation and the National Target Program on New Rural Development in the current period./.