HCMC – HEINEKEN Vietnam held a handover ceremony last week for the watershed protection project in the Ho Thau and Binh Lu communes in Tam Duong District, Lai Chau Province, which aims to provide the rural and needy communities with access to clean water and develop a culture around saving and protecting water.
“One of our ambitious goals is to be 100% water balanced by 2025. This long-term project takes a holistic approach in reaching that goal by addressing watershed protection and water scarcity across Vietnam. Clean water is an essential resource that everyone should have access to,” noted Holly Bostock, Corporate Affairs director at HEINEKEN Vietnam.
“Our program provides clean water access to communities that need it most, sponsorship of waste collection equipment as well as training on proper waste management. Creating a fully integrated project is important for the long-term growth and development of communities,” she added.
In Tam Duong District, most residents did not know how to treat livestock manure in a sustainable way or use chemical fertilizers properly. They don’t even have the equipment to handle waste. The combination of improper waste management combined with the lack of a centralized garbage collection system contributed to serious water pollution in the communes.
HEINEKEN Vietnam’s watershed project, with support from experts of the Consultative Institute for Socio-Economic Development of Rural and Mountainous Areas, has trained farmers how to use pesticides moderately and provided collection bins to prevent chemical waste from ending up in the soil or the water.
The watershed protection project in Lai Chau, which started in January 2020, was designed with a series of trainings and technical advice to equip local people with proper knowledge on water scarcity, water pollution sources, proper classification and disposal of waste, including those from domestic, livestock raising and agriculture activities.
Following the handover ceremony, the last set of activities in Lai Chau will take place over the next eight days and bring the project in the province to a successful close. Within almost a year, the project has delivered six trainings and six technical coaching sessions, supported Tam Duong District with equipment to collect waste and built a water connection system in Than Uyen District.
The training was rolled out to 1,883 households with 8,270 people across 22 villages, of which many residents are ethnic minorities such as Dao, Thai, Lu and Giay. In these communities where the majority of households are focusing on agricultural and forestry production, residents also learned how to compost and properly classify, separate, collect and treat waste.
This watershed health project is part of HEINEKEN Vietnam’s commitment to water protection and sustainability at large and will reach out to communities in need in Quang Nam Province in 2021.
By Tam An
