FEATURE: The well diggers in Laos
BOKEO, Laos (Vientiane Times/ANN) – All living things, plants, animals and humans, need water to survive. But despite an apparent abundance of water and river systems in Laos, during the dry season many people and villages struggle to access clean water which puts their health and lives at serious risk.
The government works hard to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) to ensure the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all people by 2030. There is still some way to go as the Lao Social Indicator Survey of 2018 revealed that 17 percent of the population still had no access to a reliable water supply.
This means upwards of 30,000 people go daily without water. These people, of course, are those who live in rural and agricultural communities.
Many highland rural villages are located close to springs which provide sources of constant clean water. But rural villages in the lowlands that are not located near a river use pumps and wells to get water from underground.
Patithin Phetmeuangphuan
