Lao Cai is a mountainous province in Northern Vietnam with diverse ethnic, socioeconomic and geographical conditions. It is one of the poorest provinces in the country, with more than 70% of the population living below the poverty line and has poor accessibility due to the mountainous terrain.
This project is based on the results and experiences of the first WaterFinns project ‘Scaling up hand washing with soap amongst ethnic minorities of Lao Cai province in Northern Vietnam, 2012-2015’. The first project was successful in improving personal hygiene and reducing the morbidity of diseases associated with diarrhoea. However, the lack of adequate clean water supplies is still seen as a problem. This continuation project focuses on improving the water systems and water availability for ethnic minorities in Lao Cai to improve the sustainability of the previous project.
This 3-year project, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, will include building water distribution systems in two Lao Cai communes (Hop Thanh and Ta Phoi) as well as introducing ways of monitoring the quality of water. The aims are to gradually transfer the responsibility for managing and maintaining the systems to the local groups and for the local government to take the initiative of continuing the work in other communes in the province.
After successful cooperation with local partner CERETAD-Health (Center for Research, Training and Development of Health Human Resources) in the previous project, we will continue to work together in this project. CERETAD-Health is a local non-governmental organisation with plenty of experience in the implementation of projects and scientific research in environmental health.
