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06. December 2012
Vietnam
14,191 People Reached

"Life Line II" for Thach Ha District Hospital in Vietnam

Although the Vietnamese government has invested considerable resources in improving water and sanitation over the last decade and has made considerable progress in meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals, there are many challenges left which still need support from outside bodies.


When Singapore based NGO Lien Aid first visited the Thach Ha District Hospital, they found the water and sanitation facilities to be in very poor condition. With financial and logistics support from Borouge and their local agent Han Huy Trading, they constructed a new water treatment plant and transported contaminated wastewater from the hospital building to a new wastewater treatment facility. The hospital’s toilet facilities were also improved and hand-washing awareness raising campaigns carried out greatly improving the wellbeing of both patients and staff.


Vietnam has been growing fast over the last decade and has made considerable progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goals on water and sanitation, however there are many challenges left which can still benefit from support from external organisations.


Lien Aid is a Singapore based NGO working in Asia to bring safe water and sanitation to poor communities. In this, their third collaborative project with Borouge, they have significantly improved the water and sanitation conditions for the patients and staff at the Thach Ha District Hospital in Vietnam.


As we all know clean water and good sanitation are essential for the health and wellbeing of us all and never more so than when we are in hospital recovering from an operation or illness.


The Thach Ha District Hospital

The Thach Ha District Hospital serves the local community in one of the poorest provinces in Vietnam. Located 340 km to the south of the city of Hanoi the hospital was in very poor condition with a poor quality water supply, inadequate hand-washing facilities and untreated wastewater on the site. These conditions not only affected the wellbeing of the patients in the hospital but also threatened the health of the people living nearby. On discovering this situation Singapore based NGO Lien Aid drew up an action plan which they called “Life Line II” (following on from the very successful “Life Line I” project at the Hanoi Children’s Hospital) and invited Borouge to support them within their Water for the World programme.


Working together to improve the wellbeing of both patients and staff

The agreement between Lien Aid and Borouge was signed in November 2009 and the “Life Line II” project was commenced with the ambitious objectives of:


  • Providing the 124,000 patients and healthcare workers with the access to free drinkingwater 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

  • Providing improved water quality for medicalprocedures, hand-washing and personalhygiene for the 14,000 in-patients.

  • Constructing a new wastewater treatmentsystem to reduce the health risk and improvethe environment for the 3,000 people livingaround the hospital.

  • Improving the toilet facilities and conductinghygiene campaigns to encourage medicalstaff and patients to wash their hands anddispose of solid waste properly


Borouge provided the BorSafe™ HE3490-LS PE100 compound for the project and with the help of their local agent Han Huy Trading ensured that only high quality pipes were available when required by the Lien Aid team. Quality pipe manufacturer Tifoplas based in Ho Chi Minh City produced all the PE100 pipes and delivered them to the hospital site.


These pipes have been used to deliver water from the nearby river to the newly constructed water treatment plant at the hospital facility and also to drain the wastewater from the hospital building to the new wastewater treatment facility. All the construction work has now been completed and the Lien Aid team are preparing to train the hospital maintenance staff in the operation of the various elements and officially hand over the project to the hospital management. As planned the hospital’s toilet facilities have also been improved and hand-washing awareness raising campaigns carried out for both staff and patients.


A better future for all

All these tremendous improvements in the hospital facilities and the knowledge of the staff will undoubtedly improve the quality of the medical treatment for the patients in the hospital and the wellbeing of the community working and living close by.


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