World Vision helps 5,000 poor people in Binh Thuan resist the serious water shortage
Children in a WVV's project area are happy when clean water reaches their community. (Photo: Vu Trong Chuc, Dien Bien Dong ADP )
(Ha Noi 13 June, 2016) – Around 5,000 children and adults (1,250 households) in Bac Binh and Ham Thuan Bac districts, who have been suffering the impacts on health, nutrition and livelihood emerging from the severe drought in Binh Thuan province, will receive support from World Vision to address the urgent WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) needs.
The relief worth US$150,000, which World Vision was entrusted with by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), will be implemented from June until the end of July 2016, distributing 20,000 drinking water bottles and 1,250 plastic water tanks to needy people. Each family will receive sixteen 20-liter bottles, estimated to be a 40-day supply, and one 1,000-liter water tank.
K' Thi Phieu, 38, and her son, K' Van Vuong, 8, can hardly describe their joy when they received a large barrel to store water in from World Vision. (Photo: Ham Thuan Bac ADP)
Beside evidence of massive crop losses, there is an increase in cases of communicable diseases in children, women and the elderly, including respiratory diseases, dermatitis, diarrhea, sore eyes, as they have resorted to using polluted water for their daily needs, according to an Inter-agency Assessment in Binh Thuan province led by World Vision with the participation of the Disaster Management Centre, Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development and the National Committee for Disaster Prevention and Control in March 2016.
“Our urgent relief is to contribute to containing the diseases arising from the lack of adequate water supply for human use,” says Le Van Duong, World Vision’s National Coordinator of Humanitarian & Emergency Affairs in Vietnam. “We’re seeking additional funding opportunities to leverage our support to people in needs of food aid, hygienic water supply facilities and early economic recovery in Binh Thuan and Dak Nong provinces.”
B'Đam Thi Hiem and her husband Nguyen Thanh Giam in Ham Thuan Bac province are happy to get clean water bottles from World Vision (Photo: Ham Thuan Bac ADP)
Apart from the UNDP-funded aid, World Vision has undertaken the initial responses with its own resources of US$80,000 to more than 5,000 thirsty children and adults in Ham Thuan Bac and Bac Binh districts since early June, 2016. From mid-June until July, nearly 2,000 people who have faced crop failure in Bac Binh district will also benefit from the World Vision-funded support focusing on food aid and domestic water supplies.
The prolonged drought and saline intrusion as a consequence of El Niño in the Mekong Delta, South Central Coastal and Central Highland regions has led to serious groundwater depletion in water-scarce districts, according to the Assessment. Of the estimated 2 million people suffering acute water shortage, over 1 million are women and 520,000 are children.
A father and his two sons are gathering clean water bottles provided by World Vision Vietnam in at a water shortage checkpoint in Ham Thuan Bac district. (Photo: Ham Thuan Bac ADP)
* Written by Tran My Hang, Communication officer