POVERTY: THAILAND: Authorities boost flood-control measures

BANGKOK, 1 February 2012 (IRIN)

 Photo: Shermaine Ho/IRIN 
Millions were impacted by the 2011 floods

The Thai government is pressing ahead with efforts to mitigate the risk of flooding during the upcoming rainy season, but greater coordination is still needed, flood experts say.
The US$9.6 billion measure was announced on 20 January as a first step, ahead of the annual May-October rainy season, at a flood forum organized by the National Economic and Social Development Board and the Asian Development Bank.
"If the same amount of water comes to Bangkok this year [as in 2011], the situation will be improved," Chusit Apiramanekal, a water resource management specialist in the Climate Risk Management Department of the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC) in Bangkok, told IRIN.
While no specific timeline is yet in place, the government will soon produce a master plan for flood risk reduction activities, including canal drenching, cleaning drainage systems and excavation to prevent the recurrence of last year's damage, when "most of the waterways and drainages were not functioning properly", said Ti Le Huu, former chief of water security for the Environment and Development Division at the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
The severity of the 2011 floods, brought on by unusually high rainfall after several storms and typhoons, has underscored the need for stronger prevention efforts.
More than 675 people died and millions were affected in what has since been described as the worst flooding to strike the Thai kingdom in 50 years.
The government's 2012 Action Plan includes a budget of $3.9 billion for the construction of flood ways and flood diversion channels, which will allow 1,500 million cubic metres to flow out per second, according to ADPC. Immediate work this year would include the improvement of dykes, sluice gates and canals.
In addition, almost $2 billion will go towards converting 324,000 hectares of Chao Phraya farmland north of Bangkok into land that can retain up to 10 billion cubic metres of water to prevent the flooding of areas downstream.

Preparedness key
The damage last year was exacerbated by the "lack of preparedness of people living in the affected areas, partly due to a lack of an effective communication system to share information, especially of flood forecasts", said Le Huu.
But Le Huu downplayed the risk of similar flooding in 2012. Similarly, ADPC says there is little chance that there will be a repeat of 2011's "extraordinary" precipitation, which was 40 percent above national averages at 70,000 million cubic metres of water, according to Chusit.
"When the dams tried to release the water, the provinces downstream were already flooded. When operators tried to control it, a tropical storm hit Thailand, forcing them to release it fully," he said.
The total volume of floodwater has been confirmed at 14,000 million cubic metres by the government's Strategic Committee for Flood Reconstruction and Development, according to Le Huu.

Dam fears
While fears about the dams bursting are rampant in local media, Deltares, a Dutch think-tank assisting the Thai government in an advisory role to the Flood Relief Operation Center (FROC), says dams are now operating at a lower level to mitigate flood risks.
"During 2011 the dams were full, up to the operational limit, and dam operators had to release water at the wrong time. Latest news is that they decided to operate at a lower level, give less priority to agricultural and energy use, in favour of downstream flood protection. Hence a lower risk for dam breaks," Tjitte Nauta, Deltares' integrated water management specialist for Southeast Asia, said.
According to local media reports, dam waters have dropped from 91 percent of capacity to about 84 percent in two weeks.
Of the more than two dozen dams in the Chao Phraya River basin constructed since the 1950s, the two largest - Bhumipol and Sirikit - are located on Ping and Nang river in the northern Tak and Uttaradit provinces, and control 22 percent of all water runoff from the Chao Phraya river basin.
But policymakers need to coordinate better to improve planning and flood response, said Nauta.
"The recent floods made very clear that the governance structure for water management is too complicated and during such a national crisis one single command authority would be strongly recommended," he said.
"The challenge is to maintain the momentum of work, interest, and commitment in flood management at the top level of government," added Le Huu.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=94770

POVERTY: UN Asia Pacific Chief: Corruption Feeding Poverty, Halting Social Development

Ron Corben : Bangkok May 22, 2011
 Photo: AFP
The UN's executive secretary for the Asia and Pacific Economic and Social Commission, Noeleen Heyzer (file photo)

A senior United Nations official says corruption across Asia is undermining efforts to fight poverty and reduce income disparities. In a wide ranging interview with VOA, Dr. Noeleen Heyzer, the UN’s executive secretary for the Asia and Pacific Economic and Social Commission, said countries must invest in what she called social protection to ensure economic growth in Asia.
“You know the issue is governance. Because at the end of the day you need economic governance. You need better political governance because to be able to have systems that invest in the social foundations of your communities in order that people can have a better life. And obviously any forms of corruption acts against that.”
The Asian Development Bank recently called for improvements in government accountability as “critical” in Asia to maintain social and political stability. It said rising corruption was evident in a “deterioration in the quality and credibility of national political and economic institutions.”
A World Bank Institute report warned of a retreat in accountability and political stability in Asia between 2008 and 2009. In India, for example, the World Bank found only 40 percent of government funds allocated for poverty-related programs actually reached the poor. The remainder, the Bank said, was lost because of bad administration and corruption.
Dr. Heyzer warned that despite recent regional economic gains, widening income disparities needed to be addressed by governments through improved social protection programs.
“What we have seen is that in Asia you have high economic growth but you also have growing inequalities and disparities. And the only way to deal with that is to ensure inclusive growth, to invest in social protection in making sure that for the for the first time this continent can rethink itself and reinvest in itself in terms of taking on the social perspective and dimensions.”
Economic analysts say the Asia Pacific region is an important driver of global growth. But Dr. Heyzer says Asia still faces several challenges to ensure the gains are widely shared.
“Closing the disparity gaps would be critical. How do you sustain growth, but at the same time how do you ensure that this growth is inclusive. We have economic recovery but this recovery is still fragile. There’s going to be major concerns about inflation - there is still a major concern about asset bubbles, capital inflows, and it’s critical to sustain that economic growth.”
In a recently released economic survey UNESCAP forecast Asia Pacific developing economies to grow by more than seven percent for 2011, with China and India expanding at close to nine percent. But the report said inflation remains a concern, due to rising food and energy prices, with the poor especially vulnerable.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/economy-and-business/UN-Asia-Pacific-Chief-Corruption-Feeding-Poverty-Halting-Social-Development--122411694.html

POVERTY: Phillipines: Remittances saved up to 3 million from poverty

Cai U. Ordinario, 05/04/2011

MANILA, Philippines - If the Philippine economy did not receive remittances from overseas Filipinos, around 2 million to 3 million more Filipinos would have fallen below the poverty line.
In a presentation at a multistakeholder forum on Channeling Collective Remittances for Development, Ernesto Pernia, a former chief economist at the Asian Development Bank (ADB), said remittances were able to reduce the country’s poverty incidence by 3 to 4 percentage points, which translates to around 2 million to 3 million Filipinos.
The reduction in the number of poor Filipinos would have been higher, Pernia said, if not for the “inequality” effect that was observed among households receiving remittances. Usually, he said, richer households get the bulk of overseas remittances every year.
“Most OFWs [overseas Filipino workers] originate in the Philippines’ more developed regions [and] smaller shares [come] from poorer regions. Likewise, the bulk of remittances go to the richer regions [and] smaller shares [go] to the less-developed regions. Hence, richer regions develop faster than poorer ones, worsening regional imbalance or inequality,” Pernia explained.
As such, to better take advantage of these remittances and broaden the base of economic growth in the Philippines, Bangko Sentral Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said there is a need to set up a roadmap for the utilization of these funds, which can be drafted by various stakeholders like government agencies, the academe, civil society and even financial institutions, like banks.
In the same forum, Tetangco said a roadmap would help increase the number of OFW families who are not only saving but are investing their remittances. This, Tetangco said, will have long-term impacts not only for OFW households but for the economy as well.
“If economic growth is coming from a bigger number of sectors or agents or bigger number of players, that will make it more broad-based and [make] the economy less susceptible to external shocks,” Tetangco said.
Apart from the roadmap, Pernia also said there is a need to diversify the skills of OFWs to bring in more remittances. He said admittedly, OFW skills are similar with Philippine merchandise exports in the sense that these are still low-paying.
Based on 2006 data, Pernia said the bulk of OFWs, or around 144,321, are still engaged in service provision-related jobs abroad. Filipinos engaged in high-paying professional or technical jobs abroad number only reached 41,258.
“[We need to] move away from exporting low-priced labor toward more sophisticated or higher technical-skill manpower—similar to shifting from raw materials exports toward high-value products,” Pernia said.
Other changes or improvements include obtaining quality data that can be used by policymakers in crafting better programs to help uplift or improve the lives of OFWs and their families.
Based on Pernia’s findings, as much as 50 percent of international remittances are sent to the three richest regions in the country. The National Capital Region (NCR), the country’s richest region, accounts for 18 percent to 27 percent of total remittances from 1995 to 2004.
The other regions are Southern Tagalog, which accounts for 18 percent to 22 percent, and Central Luzon, which accounts for 12 percent to 15 percent of total remittances between 1995 and 2004.
Pernia explained that households belonging to the poorest quintile get the lowest share, or around 5 percent of international remittances, while 40 percent goes to households from the richest quintile.
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/05/03/11/remittances-saved-2-3m-pinoys-poverty

POVERTY: ADB: "Food prices may lead Asians into poverty'

Press Trust Of India : April 26, 2011 Resurgent food prices, which rose by 10% on average in many regional economies in Asia in 2011, can push an additional 64 million people into extreme poverty, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report says. The study, titled, 'Global Food Price Inflation and Developing Asia', by the multilateral lendin g agency, finds that a 10% rise in domestic food prices could push an additional 64 million people, out of 3.3 billion people living in the continent, into extreme poverty, based on the $1.25 a day poverty line.
"For poor families in developing Asia, who already spend more than 60 per cent of their income on food, higher food prices further reduce their ability to pay for medical care and their children's education," ADB chief economist Changyong Rhee said.
The report said the fast and persistent rise in the cost of many Asian food staples since the middle of last year, coupled with crude oil reaching a 31-month high in March, are a serious setback for the region, which has rebounded rapidly and strongly from the global economic crisis.
As per the report, if the global food and oil price hikes seen in early 2011 persist for the remainder of the year, economic growth in the region could be reduced by up to 1.5 percentage points.
"Left unchecked, the food crisis will badly undermine recent gains in poverty reduction made in Asia," Rhee added.
The short-term outlook looks bleak, as food prices are likely to continue with their upward trend because of factors such as production shortfalls, rising demand for food from more populous and wealthier developing countries and shrinking available agricultural land, the report said.
Other dampening factors behind the double-digit increases seen in the price of wheat, corn, sugar, edible oils, dairy products and meat include the weak US dollar, high oil prices and subsequent export bans by several key food producing nations.
Commenting on the current scenario, Rhee said, "Efforts to stabilise food production should take centre stage, with greater investments in agricultural infrastructure to increase crop production and expand storage facilities, to better ensure grain produce is not wasted."
The report further calls for enhanced market integration and the elimination of policy distortions that create hurdles in transferring food from surplus to deficit regions, besides, controlling speculative activities in food markets.
The ASEAN Integrated Food Security Framework, under which the 10-member ASEAN group of countries has agreed to establish an emergency regional rice reserve system, is a positive step in that direction, the report said.
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=3604033512937490051

MALNUTRITION: Asian Development Bank: Nepal Gets Help to Reduce Child Malnutrition

01/03/2011

The FINANCIAL -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Government of Japan are to help Nepal overhaul its social protection programs, with a key goal of reducing the country's stubbornly high levels of child malnutrition.
The Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, administered by ADB, is extending a $2 million grant for a project designed to improve the planning and execution of programs to make them more inclusive and equitable. A central element will be fine tuning the country's grants system for needy children. Grants are currently available to families of children under five from the Karnali region, or from poor Dalit households, but beneficiary registration, data management, cash delivery systems, monitoring and evaluation all need to be strengthened.
"The percentage of children stunted because of malnutrition has shown little change over decades and unless efforts are scaled up, Nepal is in danger of missing a key Millennium Development Goal," said Barry J. Hitchcock, ADB's Country Director for Nepal. "This initiative will help the government to plan and execute more effective social protection programs, including improving delivery of grants to needy children."
To strengthen the grants system, support will be given to the Ministry of Local Development and local bodies, working with nongovernment organizations, to identify current bottlenecks and to develop new pilot mechanisms for cash delivery and monitoring that could eventually be replicated more broadly. A community-based infant and young child feeding, training and promotion package will be set up to complement the cash grants. Training and other assistance will be given to central and local government officials to help them improve the design and delivery of protection programs and to finalize a national social protection framework.
The project will be carried out in five districts in Karnali Zone, a remote region with the lowest socioeconomic indicators in the country. Performance goals include cutting the incidence of underweight children under five years of age by at least 25% by project end, and increasing actual coverage of child grants to 85% of eligible recipients.
Along with the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction Grant, the Government of Nepal will provide over $3.7 million, UNICEF $417,000, and communities over $29,000 in-kind, for a total investment cost of almost $6.2 million. The Ministry of Local Development will be the executing agency for the project which will run for three years and is expected to be completed by early 2014.
http://finchannel.com/news_flash/Banks/81972_ADB%3A_Nepal_Gets_Help_to_Reduce_Child_Malnutrition/

POVERTY: Thailand’s land reform proposal to fight poverty

February 20, 2011
The biggest problem in Thailand now is that real issues can get easily overshadowed and overwhelmed by what has become a complete power play, and then forgotten or cast aside by everyone who matters.
A land reform proposal submitted by the Anand Panyarachun committee with little political fanfare stands to test this malaise. We will know in the next few days if the proposal, which is worth serious attention by all, will be spurned by movements that want the prime minister to leave immediately but dont quite know why, and by a government that is trying to hang on but doesnt quite know how.
The red shirts violent campaign last year, whether it was a real grass-roots uprising as the movement claims or a Thaksin Shinawatra-sponsored agitation as alleged by the Democrat government, has brought to light the issue of economic inequality in Thailand. This forced the government, academics and civil society to look back on long-forgotten problems, one of which is the poverty associated with being landless. The embattled Abhisit government promised to act, and the Anand committee was formed.

The proposals on land reform deserve attention.
Dr. Ravi Ratnayake, Director of the Trade and Investment Division of ESCAP, said that promoting agricultural trade in the Asia-Pacific region is important for addressing poverty in Asia and the Pacific, where over 70 percent of the poor live in rural areas and have agriculture as their main livelihood.
With rising populations and the emergence of relatively affluent population segments seeking dietary diversity, the demand for food products in general, and high-value processed food in particular, has been rising. He noted there is a great potential for agricultural exports in the region.
Analyzing constraints to agricultural exports, senior policy makers, academics, exporters, logistics providers, and UN and Asian Development Bank (ADB) experts at the High-level Consultation on Facilitating Agricultural Trade in Asia and the Pacific organized in Bangkok by ESCAP this week noted that the rapid emergence of stringent private standards for food products in the West has become a major challenge. There are significant gaps in quality infrastructure and technical know-how that prevent developing countries to meet these standards. They emphasized the need for regional cooperation in building capacity and developing mechanisms for accreditation of testing facilities.
http://thailand-business-news.com/news/29142-agricultural-trade-is-key-to-poverty-reduction-and-food-security-in-asia-and-the-pacific

POVERTY: Pakistan

 Shaukat Masood Zafar • Oct 30th, 2010 •
Poverty is curse and it is said to be mother of crimes. It is in fact that most of the crimes that occur are due to poverty. It is a multi-faceted phenomenon which encompasses economic, political and social deprivations of the people in a country and manifests itself in a vicious circle. Low savings and ultimate low investments result in low income, poor education, lack of health facilities, unequal distribution of wealth and poor infra-structure. The denial of basic and essential needs to the population gives rise to the concept of poverty.
Pakistan, as a whole is filled with poverty and hunger. The hunger and poverty is assuming alarming proportions in Pakistan. The situation in Pakistan is now so bleak that even some honest people who hated corruption from depth of their beings failed to keep their mental balance due to the pressure of poverty and resorted to crimes just to maintain their existence. It is the time that the judge should not only look at the crime committed by anyone rather he should find out the cause that leads the committer to such an act. Poverty is watching our children and grandchildren share tears in their deepest sleep. Poverty is witnessing our children and grandchildren die in our arms but there is nothing we can do for them. Poverty is seeing our mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters are committing suicides in pain and in sorrow just because they could not get something to eat for their families. So far there were suicides because of unemployment and poverty but a new phenomenon has now emerged; now the poor who cannot feed their children are leaving their children at charity homes or even selling their children. It is a sign of poverty when we hide your face and wish nobody could see us just because we feel less than a human being. Poverty is when we dream of bread and meat, we never seeing in the day light.
Poverty is when the hopes of our fathers and grandfathers just vanish within a blink of an eye. Poverty never sleeps rather it works all day and night and never takes a holiday. Poverty is getting nobody to feel our pain and poverty is when our dreams go in vain because nobody is there to help us. Poverty is when we have no employment. The person who is indulged to crimes and is labeled as a criminal by the society merely due to poverty might be a genius if he had been brought up in a healthy environment. In my opinion their sins are less or no greater then the sins of the selfish and mean-minded people who call themselves honest but are constantly usurping the public money and taking it to outside the borders. The only answer to remove poverty is the creation of a sound economic and social structure. The recent trend in poverty as reported by UN found that “Food security in Pakistan in 2007-2008 has only but worsened as a result of food price hike”. The findings of the report indicate that the high food prices are undermining poverty reduction gain, as food expenditure comprises a large share of the poor total expenditures and food price hike has severely eroded poor household purchasing power. Under the minimum calorie requirement approach too, through which poverty is defined in terms of a food poverty line which reflects the minimum food expenditure needed to achieve the minimum required level of caloric intake, it is found that compared to 1969-70, poverty increased in 2009-10 and the people of Pakistan are left to get lesser caloric intake even after thirty years. According to Pakistan Planning Commission (2009), overall poverty rate has jumped from 23.9 to 37.5 percent in the last three years. The following recent report of the Asian Development Bank is an eye opener for our policy makers:
“Pakistan’s education indicators are the worst in South Asia - the fact that the education index in Nepal and Bangladesh, two countries with significantly lower per capita incomes than Pakistan, is 10 to 20 percent higher than Pakistan is a clear indicator of the low priority accorded to education in Pakistan’s development policies. Pakistan’s public sector spending on education and health, at barely 2.1 percent of GDP, is significantly lower than that of other countries in the region. At the same time, experience in Pakistan shows that accelerating human development is as much an issue of increasing expenditure on social sectors as of improving the effectiveness of spending through better governance, and future social development initiatives must be designed keeping this in mind. The report further concludes that, in general, the capacity of the poor in Pakistan to access public entitlements like political processes, or goods and services which determine human development contrasts strikingly with that of the rich. The report provides a comprehensive commentary on the causes of the increase in poverty in the 1990s, and hypothesizes that poor governance is the key underlying cause of poverty in Pakistan. Corruption and political instability, which are both manifestations of governance problems, have resulted in waning business confidence, deteriorating economic growth, declining public expenditure on basic entitlements, low efficiency in delivery of public services, and a serious undermining of state institutions and rule of law, which in turn translates into lower investment levels and growth. The effects of poor governance have compounded the economic causes of rising poverty such as decline in GDP growth rate, increasing indebtedness, inflation, falling public investment and poor state of physical infrastructure. At the same time, social factors such as the highly unequal distribution of land, low level of human development, and persistent ethnic and sectarian conflicts are also obstacles to the achievement of long term sustained development. Environmental degradation is also closely interlinked with increasing poverty and has impacts on the health of the poor as on the unsustainability of their livelihoods.”
From the above report it seems that the problem of poverty now looks to be beyond control. Official planning and the market economy system have failed to alleviate poverty.
It is an inevitable fact that 70s and 80s was a golden era in poverty reduction but this declining trend in poverty was reversed in the 1990s after revival of “democracy”. The policies formulated to eradicate it during 90s and thereafter have failed to achieve their objectives. Official planning and the market economy system both have failed to lessen poverty. Due to rapid growth of population, the number of dependents is increasing; earners have to carry the burden of the increasing number of dependents. This situation is leading to decrease in the per capita income of the people of the country. The largest sector of the economy, the agriculture sector, is heading towards backwardness as 93 per cent of the farmers are concerned with small farms whose per capita land is less then 10 acres. This is forcing a decline in the proportion of GDP which can be spent on development and social sectors. The poor law and order situation has led to flight of capital as well as private sector investment. High inflation, Shortages (Food, energy, water, oil, gas), Unemployment and business closures among the many factors (There has been load-shedding of 12 to 18 hours due to which large number of SMEs, factories and mills closed which increased the unemployment ratios in the country and ultimately poverty ratios jumped even as per official figures from 23.9 to 37.5 percent( in the last three years), reduction of 100 billion rupees in the social sector budget which has badly affected development activities, has further worsened the situation. The issue of poverty in Pakistan has its significance for sustainable development. Long run development is not possible without protecting the rights of the vulnerable groups and the participation of the entire population in the development process.
The recent trends suggest that rapid economic growth over a prolonged period is the only way for reduction of poverty. According to the ADB report, poverty is spreading in Pakistan due to the rising population, high level corruption, political instability, agriculture backwardness, internal situation unequal income distribution, defence expenditure, increase in utility charges and rise in unproductive activities. There is poverty in Pakistan but Pakistan has almost all it takes to be the richest country on earth. The major problem facing Pakistan today is corruption and poor leadership. There are greedy people in Pakistan including our leaders who don’t care about their poor mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. Some leaders are too greedy and that is why Pakistan remains poor and becoming poorer. They come in power as saints and leave as devils. The president of Pakistan is a president for a few selected people. President is a president for only in the higher class and those who are his earning hands. The President and his team see no poverty and hunger. The president sees only money and money and nothing but money and shows no mercy; that is why the people of Pakistan are so poor. The present PPP regime has put the people in danger of starvation and unimaginable suffering.
A higher and sustained economic growth must be accompanied by other poverty alleviation measures are essential to reduce poverty. Coherent approach is needed to combat the social and cultural stigma attached to it and it should be combined with effective service delivery in all parts of the country. To date, the biggest reason for the failure of the programs has been the lackadaisical attitude of the government and lack of its commitment. Unless that is altered, change will remain elusive. Problems of high unemployment, floundering education system, crises of food, water and energy and population growth will have to be handled sharply to curb the poverty. Accelerating economic growth and maintaining macroeconomic stability, investing in human capital, Expanding social safety nets; restoration of investor confidence, eradicating corruption and improving governance are the building blocks for the bridge that will lead Pakistan into the prosperity Inshallah.
http://www.pakspectator.com/poverty-in-pakistan/

POVERTY: ADB will continue to work with Nepal to reduce poverty

 29 October 2010
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has said it will continue to work closely with the Government of Nepal and stakeholders in reducing poverty and promote inclusive growth for all Nepalis.
Such a commitment has come from the Bank's director general for South Asia department, Sultan H. Rahman, who completed his three-day official visit to Nepal.
According to a statement issued by Nepal Resident Mission (NRM) of the ADB, Rahman's commitment to assist Nepal is in line with its Country Partnership Strategy 2010 - 2012 for the country, which is anchored in the four strategic pillars of broad-based inclusive growth, social development, governance and capacity building and climate change.
"We will continue to focus on these core areas in our efforts to help alleviate poverty and uplift the standard of living of Nepalis, the majority of whom still have to make ends meet," said Rahman, who headed NRM from 2003-2006.
According to him, the ADB has been closely following the developments in Nepal with keen interest and appreciates the challenging and complex political transition the country is undergoing.
He further mentioned, "Nepal still faces formidable development challenges. It must transform the challenges into opportunities by consolidating the peace process and focusing on effective implementation of projects on the ground."
While in Nepal, Rahman met with Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Planning and Works, Finance Minister, the governor and other senior Government officials, among others. nepalnews.com
http://www.nepalnews.com/main/index.php/business-a-economy/10159-adb-will-continue-to-work-with-nepal-to-reduce-poverty.html

SANITATION: VIETNAM: Teaching new sanitation habits

Photo: Tharum Bun/IRIN

Water and sanitation challenges continue in VietnamCHAU DOC, 28 October 2010 (IRIN) - Vann Sopheap, an ethnic Cambodian who lives in this small border town in Vietnam, prefers the outdoors to the bathroom. "It smells much nicer outside," he says. "The toilets are too dirty."
Villagers such as Vann are often reluctant to use latrines, a behaviour that contributes to the prevalence of diarrhoeal diseases in Vietnam, which can sometimes become deadly, especially for children under-five.
According to the UN, some 10 million people in Vietnam continue to practise open defecation.
Each year more than 20,000 people die in the country because of a lack of clean water, poor sanitation and hygiene, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports.
Sanitation lags behind other MDGs
In the past two decades, speedy economic growth and efficient government policies have led to "considerable gains" in child health, Lotta Sylwander, the country representative for the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), recently told government officials and international donors in the capital, Hanoi.
The country has achieved almost all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) "well ahead of schedule", making it a leader among many Asian countries, reveals a report published by UNICEF in September. But progress in sanitation has been slow.
In 2006, the latest year for which data is available, just over half of the rural population had access to "improved" sanitation facilities, as did 88 percent of the urban population, according to UNICEF.
Twenty million children, or 59 percent of all children in Vietnam, do not have access to proper sanitation. About 73 percent of schools have latrines, but fewer than half meet national standards. A lack of access to clean sanitation and hygiene causes about half of all communicable diseases in the country.
"Poverty can be one reason for this, but education and culture play very important roles as well," Thowai Zai, head of the UNICEF water and sanitation programme, told IRIN.
Many people living in rural and remote mountainous areas consider open defecation to be cleaner, he said. In poor areas, especially in northern mountainous regions and the central highlands, people have much scarcer access to toilets, Zai added.
Others defecate in rivers and ponds, the same water sources they use for cooking, cleaning and bathing.
Some experts argue that NGOs need to more effectively educate villagers. "Villagers know it's no good to poop into the water," Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organisation, told IRIN from Singapore.
"The only thing needed is to reinforce that message, because old habits take time to change," he added.
Community approach
Merely providing toilets does not guarantee local people will use them, experts say.
To encourage more efficient use of latrines and good hygiene, in 2009 the Ministry of Health introduced a programme called community-led total sanitation (CLTS), in several poor provinces throughout the country, such as Dien Bien, Lao Cai, Kon Tum, Ninh Thuan, and An Giang.
Rather than NGOs subsidizing the construction of individual toilets for each household, the project attempts to mobilize communities to analyze their own sanitation problems and agree on their own solutions.
UNICEF hopes the villages can become "open-defecation-free".
Earlier this year, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a US$45 million loan for a large water supply and sanitation project in six central Vietnamese provinces.
The loan will be used to improve toilets in schools, hospitals and homes. About 350,000 people will reap the benefits, according to the ADB, which hopes the project will be completed by 2016.
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=90900