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Building partnerships to give 3,500 people access to clean drinking water in Vietnam
It is well and truly 2019 now, and still more than 844 million people in the world don’t have access to clean drinking water. That is one in ten! As a company we feel the responsibility to start somewhere to make a change. Since 2014 we’ve been partnering with Made Blue to try and make a difference - matching our water use at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol by donating clean water to a remote community, litre for litre.
Through this partnership, we started supporting the water project ‘Clean drinking water for minority groups in Vietnam’ carried out by World Vision, in October 2019. The project focuses on the Dien Quang municipality in the Ba Thuoc district, which is mainly inhabited by the Muong – a minority group in Vietnam.
Polluted water by nearby cemetery
The population of the Dien Quang municipality has limited access to safe water. They use a water source that became polluted by a nearby cemetery, without using a filter. This leads to health risks such as diarrhea and eye infections. For young children consuming the contaminated water, the health issues are even bigger.
Stuck in poverty
The local population spend a great deal of time every day fetching water. Mostly the job of women, this can be especially difficult during dry season. As a result, they cannot work, while the costs for water supplies are high. On average, the costs for collecting water are around 310,000 VND, which is equivalent to approximately € 14 euros. This is a considerable amount of money for a family in this deprived neighborhood. Consequently, the people get stuck in a cycle of poverty.
With this two-year program, we help by not only setting up an accessible and affordable water supply system, but by also giving the local population the insights of sanitation and hygiene advantages. We’re proud to share that this project will provide more than 3,500 people with clean drinking water and in this way leading to improved health and quality of life.