Clean water, clean sanitation
A spacious, beautiful flat-roofed house, not much different from the houses in the city, is the home of Mrs. Vu Thi Thua's family in Da Nghi village, Nghia An commune (Ninh Giang). Mrs. Thua said that more than a year ago, thanks to a loan from the rural clean water and environmental sanitation program, plus a small amount of money saved after many years of working, her family decided to rebuild a new house. "The old house was still habitable, although it was degraded, but because it was built a long time ago, the toilet was not guaranteed. Now it's different, the bathroom has a shower, a sink, and the kitchen has a clean water line, very modern and fragrant," Mrs. Thua shared.
Thanks to the loan from this program, the family of Mr. Pham Van Muoi, born in 1955 in Quan Son village, An Son commune (Nam Sach) has a sanitary facility and a closed clean water system. “More than 3 years ago, all 5 members of my family had to share an old, cramped toilet, which was very inconvenient at times. I have a small child at home, so renovating the toilet area was even more necessary, but unfortunately at that time the family's economy was difficult, so we couldn't do it,” said Mr. Muoi.
Introduced and guided by the An Son Commune Farmers' Association, Mr. Muoi completed the application to borrow policy capital. The procedure was simple, no need to mortgage assets, and the loan period was up to 5 years, so after a short time, Mr. Muoi's family had a modern sanitary facility, completely different from before.
These are just 2 of nearly 60,000 customers in the whole province who have access to policy credit capital under the rural clean water and environmental sanitation loan program.
Clean water and sanitation not only contribute to improving people's quality of life but also help localities in the province implement environmental criteria in new rural construction, towards building ecological agriculture, modern countryside, and civilized farmers.
Low loan amount
That is the meaning, but the credit policy program for clean water and rural environmental sanitation loans is showing shortcomings, most clearly the loan level. The lending is currently implemented according to Decision 1205/QD-TTg dated September 19, 2018 of the Prime Minister, amending and supplementing Decision 62/2004/QD-TTg dated April 16, 2004 on credit for implementing the National Strategy on clean water supply and rural environmental sanitation.
Accordingly, from September 25, 2018, the maximum loan amount for each type of clean water and sanitation project increased from VND 6 million/project to VND 10 million/project, which means the maximum increased from VND 12 million/household to VND 20 million/household. Up to now, after 6 years, the maximum loan amount of VND 20 million/household is still applied.
This policy credit program currently has a regulated interest rate of 9%/year.
A simple calculation, if a rural household borrows a maximum of 20 million VND to build a sanitation facility and a clean water facility for a maximum of 5 years, each month it will have to pay 333,333 VND in principal, interest from 150,000 VND, decreasing gradually according to the outstanding debt. "This is not a large amount of money, rural people like us can afford it. But the problem is that the loan amount is not high, while the current cost of labor, materials, and many bathroom equipment has increased, 10 million VND is not enough to build a sanitation facility", Mr. Le Van Sang in Ngo Quyen commune (Thanh Mien) worried.
Many people share the same mentality as Mr. Sang, so many people have switched to borrowing capital from commercial banks, where they can borrow large amounts of money and enjoy lower interest rates.
To resolve this issue in order to promote policy capital, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is drafting a decision of the Prime Minister on credit to implement the National Strategy for Clean Water Supply and Rural Sanitation to 2030, with a vision to 2045. According to the draft, the rural clean water and environmental sanitation program will maintain the interest rate of 9%/year, the maximum loan term is 5 years, but the maximum loan amount for each type of project (clean water or sanitation) will be increased to 25 million VND/household.
Not only the loan amount, the rural clean water and environmental sanitation loan program also revealed another limitation. That is the area where the loan is given. Hai Duong City, Chi Linh, Kinh Mon currently have many policy beneficiaries who need to borrow capital from this program, but because their place of residence is not in a rural area, they are not eligible for the loan.
In the above draft, the content on loan subjects is also adjusted. Accordingly, loan subjects are households legally residing in rural areas. Rural areas are administrative areas that do not include wards in towns, districts and cities. Thus, it can be understood that in communes that have not been upgraded to wards in Hai Duong City, Chi Linh, Kinh Mon, people can still borrow capital from this program.
According to statistics from the Social Policy Bank, Hai Duong branch, by the end of April 2024, the outstanding balance of this program in the province reached nearly VND 1,100 billion, accounting for 21.6% of the total outstanding policy credit. This is the program with the third highest outstanding balance among the 12 programs currently being implemented in the area, contributing to the construction of more than 8,100 clean water and sanitation works in rural areas.
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