Determinants of household’s piped water connection in arsenic contaminated areas of the Red River Delta, Vietnam

Abstract

Arsenic in drinking water is a severe public health risk in Vietnam especially in the Red River Delta (RRD), northern Vietnam. Located in the RRD, Hanam is the most affected province by arsenic contamination of groundwater. Several programs have been initiated and implemented in Vietnam especially in the rural areas to address the problems of arsenic in drinking water, among those piped water from centralized water plants. However, it is the fact that like many developing countries, in Vietnam efforts have been focused mainly on engineering aspect of technologies, while the nature of water users' needs is neglected. This study assessed the determinants of piped water connection in arsenic contaminated areas of the RRD based on a field survey of 443 households in Hanam province. We found that, most of the respondents in RRD were aware of arsenic contaminated water but did not have deep knowledge on the issue and long-term health effect of consuming arsenic contaminated water. Connection fee, arsenic awareness index and household expenditure presented the most influential factors affecting the decision of getting connected. We discussed the implication of connection subsidies, awareness raising and collective action policy for providing safe water for the welfare of all society.

Assessment of impacts of utilization on water resources in the basin of trans-boundary Red river system

“…Red river system (RRS) is a large transboundary river system with a basin of 147,525 sq.km in area, among which 74,828 sq.km is in China's territory, with great potentials for the social economic development and meaningfully environmental and ecological functions in Northern Vietnam [1,2]. However, the intensive exploitation of water resources in the basin in form of making reservoirs for electric generation, irrigation, domestic needs, mining for heavy minerals and deforestation has impacted water resource potentials in the basin which are inherently influenced by the global climate change [3,4]. As the large transboundary river system, there has been no united system of hydrology stations as well as integrated plan for the water use and management in the whole basin.…”