Huong Nguyen is about 60 km from Hue city. It is a marginalised, mountainous commune in A Luoi district, with a population of 1,350 people across 350 households. There are very few opportunities for formal work and most families are subsistence farmers. They earn around 3 -3.5 million VND per month. The main ethnicity is Van Kieu – 85% of the population.
In 2017-2018, under the sponsorship of The Rotary, we successfully delivered our first WASH project in Huong Nguyen. This provided over 1,300 families and 1 kindergarten access to clean, running water and a further 52 families and 1 school with hygienic latrines. Since then, other families have independently constructed a further 20 latrines, elevating the total number of hygienic latrines in Huong Nguyen to 101 for 350 households.
However, due to lacking of fund, Hearts For Hue is not able to provide an assistance to the remaining 250 households (or 70% of the community). Hence, they still use homemade, temporary latrines or defecate directly into waterways. The problem is exacerbated during the wet season when heavy rains draw human excrement out from homemade latrines. This continues to affect the environment and health of local people.
Through a recent survey, we found that most of local people are very eager to have a hygienic latrine with showers, but they do not have enough money to build. Mrs Ho Thi Roi– a local villager told us: “We have used this temporary toilet since 1996. I have found it difficult to use our toilet, especially in the rainy season. This kind of toilet caused a bad smell which impact on our daily living. I am truly expecting that somebody will able to help us to build a standard toilet with shower in the near future”
