Thanks to credit fund for clean water and sanitation in rural areas, thousands of family in Binh Duong province have had a chance to develop clean water and sanitation constructions to provide drinking water, protect the environment of rural areas.
Happy to have clean water
Ms. Le Kim Phuong living in Kien Dien hamlet, An Dien commune, Ben Cat town has a clean garden; latrines, well, and dishwashing place are arranged logically. She said, in 2013, her family borrowed VND12 million from Clean water and rural sanitation program to drill deeper well, buy water tank. As a result, her family are not worried about the lack of water.
Thanks to Clean water and rural sanitation program, Mr. Tran Ngoc Thuan living in Kien An hamlet, An Dien commune also built a clean well for his family. He said, credit policy of Social Policy Bank was a very good and appropriate solution for people's life. Monthly payable principal and interest amount is only VND300,000 calculated according to the outstanding balance paid within 5 years.
Ms. Le Kim Phuong and her family in Kien Dien hamlet, An Dien commune, Ben Cat town have had clean water to use thanks to the Clean water and rural sanitation program.
According to the Social Policy Bank, the province has 201,800 households and other customers in rural areas granted loans from this fund. Mr. Vo Van Duc, Director of Binh Duong Social Policy Bank, said, with a loan of VND6 million/construction, low interest rate, long repayment period of 60 months, the program has created favorable conditions for people to repay loans easily. After examination, most borrowers used loans for proper purposes, thus debt recovery has run well. Bad debts of the bank account for 0.45% of total loans.
A loan amount increase is in need
A difficulty to borrower is that a loan of VND6 million/construction is too low for labor and raw materials cost. According to Mr. Le Van Danh, Head of Savings and loans group of Kien Dien hamlet, An Dien commune, Ben Cat town, this loan amount is not enough for an actual construction project. "Purchasing water tank, water pump cost more than VND 6 million not including building toilets and other incurred expenses. Some poor households depending absolutely on loans cannot have a high construction quality, or do not dare to take out loans to develop their construction. Therefore, Social Policy Bank should increase the loan amount by VND8 million/construction”, said Mr. Danh.
Another difficulty is that the program scale consists of only communes, villages, and hamlets in rural areas. Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hiep, credit official of Ben Cat town Social Policy Bank, said, due to narrow scale, many households could not access this fund.
According to Mr. Vo Van Duc, the biggest difficulty to Clean water and rural sanitation program is households in wards and towns, which are not covered by the program, although many households in these areas do not concentrate in central areas and away from water supply stations. Therefore, an increase in loan amount is necessary. Besides, the expansion of eligible borrowers is in need.
According to Binh Duong Social Policy Bank, after 10 years of implementation of Clean water and rural sanitation program, total loans reached VND440 billion. In order for people to access this fund and use loans for right purposes, the bank has collaborated closely with departments, associations and unions in the province to disseminate credit policies of the program among hamlets and communes. While implementing, the bank established 88 transaction branches located at communal People’s Committee.
Reported by T.Hong – Translated by Ngoc Huynh
