CLEAN DRINKING WATER FOR PEPPER COMMUNITIES IN VIETNAM

ofi's black pepper estate in the heart of the Chu Puh District in the Gia Lai Province of Vietnam is located in a very rural area where clean drinking water is scarce.

People from the village were buying drinking water from the local market at 20000 VND (0.86 USD) per 20 liters. The commute to a nearby town with bad roads was a challenge and the safety of the water was questionable. To help communities in this province access fresh drinking water, ofi built water filtering system houses in two villages near its estate, one in Kenh Mek village and another in Ia Brel village. The filtration systems are pumping water from underground borewells This water contains levels of heavy metals and bacteria that are too high to make it suitable for drinking without filtering. The filtration system has the capacity to deliver 6000 liters of clean drinking water per day.

Between the two filtration systems, around 1300 farming families have access to safe and clean drinking water daily and about 3000 liters of treated drinking water is being supplied to the communities every day. As water quality and uninterrupted supply are constant points of attention, the ofi team maintain the filtering houses on a continuous basis.

“As a local community, we highly appreciate ofi’s initiative to provide safe and healthy water for drinking. It helps the local farming community to save money in buying water," says Mr. Ksor Xuong, Village Head of the Kenh Mek community.

Thanks to these efforts, 95% of the community now has access to clean drinking; this metric is tracked on AtSource under the Material Area of Health & Nutrition.