For vulnerable women’s sustainable access to sanitary facilities and safe water

The project aims at supporting low-income and vulnerable households to improve their health and achieve gender equality through their sustainable access to water and sanitary toilets. Its desired outcomes are 8,000 poor/pro-poor and vulnerable households having access to safe water and 20,000 households including 3,000 vulnerable and 15,000 poor/pro-poor ones having sanitary toilets. The project uses the output-based approach and encourages the contribution of the local authorities towards a sustainable access to quality water and hygiene services. Gender equality and women’s empowerment are also incorporated into the project to create changes at the household and community levels. 

In order to achieve its goals, the project combines community awareness raising, local staff capacity building, service improving and rewarding activities. After the two first phases, many thousand poor, pro-poor and vulnerable households have sanitary toilets and access to water. The project results are closely connected to the VWU’s campaign on building families of 5-withouts and 3-cleans and the National Target Programs for New Rural Development for the period of 2016-2020 and beyond.

VWU’s model of sanitary water supply for community daily use at Ba Don Town (Source: https://www.baoquangbinh.vn/)

The roadmap to achieve the project targets in 2020 and in the coming years needs to be reviewed and adjusted due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. Tentatively, a contest on women’s initiatives to improve the hygiene and water quality in the Mekong River Delta in 2020 will be launched. The contest is a spotlight of the project towards quality products and services which are more responsive to climate change and more socially inclusive.