Improving water and sanitation has a huge impact on the health and livelihoods of people living in poverty. But despite Vietnam's significant economic growth in recent years, many poor households in the country, especially in rural and remote areas do not have access to clean water and safe sanitation. Many schools and health clinics also lack these very basic facilities.
The Government of Vietnam is leading efforts to tackle these issues through its National Target Program for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation. Australia has been the principal donor to this program since 2006.
Over the last five years, the program provided access to clean water for 10.2 million rural poor and hygienic latrines for 900,000 households.
But more effort is needed to ensure these critical services reach the rest of Vietnam's rural poor.
On 12 January 2012, Australia, together with Denmark and the United Kingdom, co-signed an agreement with the Government of Vietnam to support Phase 3 of the program.
'Our support of Phase 3 demonstrates our strong determination and long-term commitment to improving the livelihoods of the rural poor in Vietnam by providing clean water and sanitation services,' said AusAID's Mekong and Regional Minister-Counsellor, Michael Wilson at the signing.
Phase 3 of the program will run from 2012 to 2015, aiming to achieve the following key targets:
- 85 per cent of the rural population have access to clean water
- 65 per cent of rural households use hygienic latrines
- 45 per cent of rural households have hygienic livestock pens
- Most rural schools, kindergartens, health clinics have access to hygienic water and latrines, which are fully functioning and well managed.
The total financial commitment in Phase 3 is approximately US$93 million with Australia as the main donor contributing up to A$65million.
Through this program, Vietnam will hope to achieve United Nations' Millennium Development Goal 7, which aims to halve the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by the year 2015.