Yen Thanh: People suffer from lack of domestic water

(Baonghean) - Thousands of households in Yen Thanh district are in dire straits because they have been facing a shortage of water for many months. Many years ago, trusting the water plant, many households destroyed their wells and water tanks... but now they are thinking of spending millions of dong to dig new wells.

People cry out to heaven

Just after returning from the field, Ms. Hoang Thi Hoa (Xuan Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district) ran to her neighbor to ask for clean water for use. There are 6 people in her family, so Ms. Hoa had to carry a bunch of plastic cans on her car for many trips to have enough water for use. "Luckily, my neighbor has a large storage tank, so I was able to ask for help. But asking for more is also a hassle, many times the whole family had to accept the lack of water," Ms. Hoa said.

Not only Ms. Hoa's household, 6,000 other households in Xuan Thanh, Tang Thanh, Hoa Thanh, Van Thanh communes and Yen Thanh town have also been suffering similar situations for the past 3 months. Lack of water has turned people's lives upside down. They say they don't know how long they can endure this situation.

“The well has been demolished, there is no tank. Meanwhile, the water plant and the local government do not let people know when this situation will end. We are suffering too much. We may have to dig a well and will no longer buy water from the plant,” said Nguyen Trong Hoang (32 years old).

The water pump operating system is running at idle.

More than 7 years ago, along with many households in Xuan Thanh commune and Yen Thanh town, Mr. Hoang's family demolished the well to get clean water, bought from the Yen Thanh town water plant. Mr. Hoang said that, since then, the people here have never had to endure such a persistent water shortage. Mr. Hoang and his wife work hard in the fields all day, while their children go to school. In the evening, the whole family has a headache with water. It seems like every item that can hold water has been requisitioned by Mr. Hoang, but it is still not enough for the whole family. "The worst thing is when I am in the middle of a shower and the water is suddenly cut off. I am still covered in soap and run around the neighborhood to ask for some water to finish my shower. It is really funny," Mr. Hoang said in frustration.

Unable to bear the water shortage for months, Mr. Ngo Van Cu (32 years old, Xuan Thanh commune) had to spend more than 6 million VND to hire workers to drill a well. However, people said that in this poor rural area, not every family has the money to drill a well like Mr. Cu's family. Because that is a large amount of money for farmers like them. "To drill a well, you have to borrow money. After drilling, they fix the water, but it is also a waste of money," said Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hai (50 years old). Miserable because of the water shortage, Mrs. Hai thinks that the water plant as well as the local government must have the responsibility to widely inform people when this situation will end so that they can find a way to cope.

Irresponsible authorities

Confirming the prolonged water shortage, Mr. Phan Duy Thanh - Director of Yen Thanh Town Water Plant said that the unit was "powerless". Mr. Thanh said that Yen Thanh Water Plant has been in operation since 2009, with water sourced from Bara Do Luong dam. Up to now, the plant has provided water for about 6,000 households in 5 communes and towns. Meanwhile, the water shortage started from August until now.

According to Mr. Thanh, the reason the factory does not regularly supply domestic water to the people is because the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is implementing a project to restore and upgrade the Northern irrigation system. This is a project approved by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development with a total investment of 5,705 billion VND, including the renovation and upgrading of Bara Do Luong, consisting of 12 compartments with a length of 315.4m.

The shortage of domestic water for Yen Thanh people has been going on for many months now.

In addition, according to Mr. Thanh, the prolonged water shortage is due to the construction of rural roads. Among them, the most severely affected is Xuan Thanh commune. “This commune is building a road to Gam pagoda. However, up to now, there is still one household that has not been able to clear the land. Therefore, the water pipeline to that area has been stopped, while the old pipeline cannot be used because the new road is deviated from the old road,” Mr. Thanh explained.

The water plant director said that the plant previously ran 23 hours a day with a capacity of 23,000m³However, for the past 3 months there is still about 800m left.³a day. To cope with the water shortage, for Yen Thanh town, the factory decided to cut off water for 14 hours a day. Accordingly, people and authorities are only supplied with water from 12:30 noon to 22:30 pm every day. For 4 communes, due to lower water demand, the factory decided to cut off 10 hours every 48 hours. "On average, in the communes, there is water for about 5 hours a day. In some more severely affected places, it is an average of 2 hours," Mr. Thanh said, adding that he could not answer how long the water shortage would last, because the unit had to depend on the speed of the projects.

Discussing this issue, Mr. Phan Van Tuyen - Chairman of Yen Thanh District People's Committee said that due to objective reasons, the project to upgrade the Northern irrigation system had to be implemented. "To serve the project, the water had to be cut off in rotation. Before implementation, the district also requested the project side to prioritize Yen Thanh district when closing and opening water. Therefore, they currently agree to supply water for 10 days every month and cut off 20 days." When asked about the responsibility and actions of the government in solving the problem of domestic water for the people, Mr. Tuyen could not give an answer about the time to overcome this situation and said that it depends on the speed of the project. "Maybe this situation will last until next year...", Chairman of Yen Thanh District People's Committee said.

Water is scarce and turbid.

Thus, the water plant and local authorities have not really fulfilled their responsibilities. Domestic water is a daily essential need, after signing the contract, the water plant must have the obligation to meet that need for the people and cannot blame objective circumstances and give unclear answers about the duration of this situation. While before, each household had to spend 3-4 million VND to invest in a water collection system, many households had filled tanks, filled wells and all domestic water sources depended on tap water.

Furthermore, the water plant is the unit that clearly knows the construction time, water cut schedule as well as the level of impact but has not proactively come up with an alternative plan. In case there is no other solution, this unit and the local government must widely inform the people about the expected time of water cut so that they can understand the situation. In reality, both of these problems have not been thoroughly resolved. And in the end, people have to live every day in a situation of water scarcity without any feasible solution from those responsible.

Tien Hung - Phuong Thao