The main findings of the SEA were disseminated last week in Hanoi during a workshop with the participation of people from the central and provincial water and sanitation programme. The SEA is a part of the off budget Technical Assistance provided by Danida and AusAID under the joint donors’ support to the Vietnamese National Target Programme for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (NTP II).
As a rule of thumb, all Danida supported programmes must ensure that they are “environmental friendly” and the support to the NTP II is no exception. There are significant environmental improvement opportunities in the programme. The increased focus on hygiene promotion leads to permanent changes in attitude and practice within personal hygiene and the enforcement of hygienic standards at home, at schools and at public institutions. This will improve health of the rural people, particularly of children.
The SEA confirms the positive environmental impacts of the NTP II but also brings forward a number of key recommendations, which are useful not only for the current implementation of the NTP II but also for the formulation of the post NTP II programme (2010-2015). The recommendations are specific and concentrate on management of solid waste and water waste, promotion of behaviour change on environmental sanitation and improvement of the Operation and Maintenance of public and school latrines.
However challenges remain. The main challenge is how this SEA can affect national policy and provide practical guidance to the planning process, particularly at local levels (provincial and lower levels), so that issues important to the water and sanitation sector are taken into account.
