Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands on January 22 signed an agreement to grant 27.6 million USD to Vietnam’s National Target Programme for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation. The donation was additional to the 125 million USD provided by Australia, Denmark and the Netherlands for the 2005-10 phase.
UK Department for International Department head Fiona Louise Lappin said the support aimed to improve the lives of poor people and ethnic minorities in rural and remote areas.
“We are delighted to support the Government in scaling up rural households’ access to water and sanitation,” Lappin said. Peter Lysholt Hansen, ambassador of Denmark, said he hoped the funding would help Vietnam achieve the Millennium Development Goal of 85 percent of the rural population using clean water and 70 percent of rural households having hygienic latrines and livestock pens by the end of this year.
Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Bich Dat said the nation appreciated the assistance to help its poor people.
So far, 79 percent of the nation’s rural population have access to clean water and 51 percent of rural households have been supplied hygienic latrines.