Environmental Health in Rural Areas – Water and Environmental Sanitation in

Than Son

Viet Nam

In June 2007, AFAP completed a highly successful drinking water and environmental sanitation program in Thanh Son district. AFAP worked with the Thanh Son Women’s Union and district Agriculture and Health departments to implement the project, with funding from AusAID.

The project trained a team of village construction technicians in construction of improved drinking water tanks and animal sties, and in the installation of double vault latrines. These technicians worked with villagers to apply low technology and low-cost solutions which greatly improved drinking water supply and quality, and environmental sanitation.

One of these low-cost and low-tech solutions was the use of slow filter systems – incorporating river stones, gravel and sand – into household drinking water tanks. Baseline laboratory tests revealed that prior to the project intervention, 100% of household water supplies were contaminated with organic pollution and did not meet national hygiene standards. After installation of the slow filter systems, laboratory tests indicated that organic pollution had reduced significantly and all samples were safe to drink.

The project also constructed improved animal sties and animal manure storage places to better contain and compost animal waste. Supporting these improvements to animal sty hygiene, AFAP and our partners fostered the market-based uptake of a biological compound called Emuniv. Emuniv was developed by the Hanoi University of Science over a 2-year period. It is cheap, easy to use and increases the speed of decomposition of pathogens in manure, reducing odours and creating safe organic compost for use by farmers on their crops and gardens.