Water supply contaminated with saltwater intrusion made safe for drinking for communities across two Vietnamese provinces on the Mekong Delta

During the dry season from January to June every year, contaminating saltwater seeps into the communities’ drinking water supply in the coastal provinces of Ben Tre and Tra Vinh in Vietnam. With municipal water treatment systems unable to remove this high saline content effectively, rural communities are forced to buy water from other sources. Villagers wait in long queues and pay exorbitant prices to purchase drinking water from these alternative sources, some with no guarantee of the water’s quality.

Earlier this year, a pilot initiative by Lien AID in partnership with the National Centre for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (NCERWASS) of Vietnam equipped three municipal water treatment plants with additional desalination systems, successfully removing the high saline content in the drinking water supply, effectively making it safe for consumption.  This continues to be sold at an affordable price, ensuring that these communities are able to carry out their lives with guaranteed access to clean and affordable water.

An estimated 7, 475 beneficiaries have benefitted from this pilot initiative. However many communities living in the coastal provinces on the Mekong Delta continue to live with this challenge, and a lack of access to clean drinking water.