Clean drinking water is a great thing
In conjunction with the East Meets West Foundation we have provided funding and expertise to deliver clean water to over 300 households in our community for the very first time. The project, which includes a purification plant for well water, is being extended to include a further 60 households. Maintenance and water quality testing is self-funded by the local community.
The importance of drinkable water cannot be overestimated when taking into consideration the myriad of health problems that arise from drinking unsafe water. The obvious costs to the people in both human and monetary terms. Besra is proud to be part of the program and excited to be involved with an organization such as East meets West.
Phuoc Duc is a poor commune of Phuoc Son district where the majority of villagers are Bh’noong. There are 560 households with over 2,300 inhabitants in the whole commune. Over 90 percent of the population are of the Bh’noong ethnic group and 72 percent of them belong to poor households. The main activity of these people is farming. Before Besra’s project, locals had to walk to the forest to get water from streams for their daily use or draw water from their wells which would be untreated and run dry in the summer. Therefore, their difficult lives by nature are getting more difficult.
Funded by Besra on May 2012, the clean water project has been implemented by a local respected NGO, East Meet West Foundation. It features a dam in the upper reaches of Daksa river, a water treatment plant, installation of water meters and nearly 19 kilometers of pipe delivering clean and safe water to more than 1,500 inhabitants of four hamlets (1,2,3 and 4) in the commune (near the mine site of Phuoc Son Gold Company). Over US$200,000 was invested in the project that directly benefits local people.
The clean water project has been the dream of hundreds of people in Phuoc Duc for a long time. Looking at the workers joining the pipes to her house, Ms. Ho Thi Man (village 2, Phuoc Duc commune) expressed her excitement: “How happy I am! I won’t carry water any more from now on. I will have more time to take care of my children and work for escaping poverty”. For many years, Ms. Man and tens of other women in the village had to carry water for their families. However, the clean water from the system will deliver directly to her house this Tet.
Mr. Hoang Van U, living in hamlet 2 of Phuoc Duc commune, happily said: “Our family has clean and safe water for our daily use and cooking in this New Year. We are no longer worried about the water deficiency. It’s really a great happiness for us and we would, by the way, like to say thanks to Phuoc Son Gold Company for bringing the clean water to us”.
SHARING DIFFICULTIES WITH LOCAL PEOPLE
With efforts to support the local socio-economic programs and community assistance programs, in addition to the clean water system, Besra has invested tens of billions dongs to a wide range of other activities from roads to school classroom construction, house building, education support as well as health care programs for poor villagers and children in local communities near mine sites.
In partnership with East Meets West
East Meets West creates sustainable and catalytic solutions to difficult development problems. Our mission statement is to transform the health, education and communities of disadvantaged people in Asia by building partnerships, developing opportunities and creating sustainable solutions.