(HBO) – Over the past years, the northern province of Hoa Binh has effectively carried out the credit programme on clean water and environmental sanitation, contributing to improving local people’s living standards and rural environmental sanitation, and giving a facelift to rural areas.

Thanks to concessional loans from the Vietnam
Bank for Social Policies (VBSP), Ha Thi Kieu’s family in Cha hamlet, Tong Dau
commune, Mai Chau district, built a system of clean water and sanitation,
helping raise their living standards.
Vu Dinh Hoai, Director of the VBSP’s Hoa Binh
branch, said at the end of July, the province had 6,836 customers who took
loans worth more than 79.2 billion VND from the bank, increasing the total
outstanding balance to 389.9 billion VND owed by 35,709 households. Most of the
households have used the loans for right purposes.
Since the beginning of this year, the
households have built 6,863 clean water facilities and 6,836 sanitation
facilities such as water containers and filters, drilled wells, bathrooms and
toilets.
Thanks to such efforts, the rural environment
has been improved significantly, contributing to completing the environmental
criterion of new-style area building in hamlets and communes in the province.
The VBSP will continue to closely coordinate
with organisations and associations in localities to popularise credit policies
on clean water and rural environmental sanitation, creating conditions for
rural residents to approach preferential loans to build clean water and
sanitation facilities. At the same time, the bank will step up efforts to
collect debts and interest rates as scheduled to help other households access
loans.
Thanks to integrated loans, localities in the
province built hundreds of centralised clean water facilities. Up to 90 percent
of rural residents get access to clean water and over 70 percent of rural
households have hygienic toilets. Meanwhile, more than 60 percent of breeding
facilities meet sanitation requirements.
At the end of 2017, 79 out of the 191
communes in the province fulfilled the environment-related criterion in
new-style rural area building.
In late March, 29 labourers from Da Bac district were sent to work as seasonal farm workers in Buyeo county, Chungcheongnam province, the Republic of Korea (RoK). Upon arrival, they quickly settled into their jobs, enjoying good working conditions and benefits, with wages aligned with the terms of their signed contracts. The programme is now being expanded, with relevant departments and sectors actively seeking additional seasonal employment opportunities in various localities across the RoK.
Luong Son Industrial Park has invested in standardised wastewater and emissions treatment systems, enforced tight emission controls, reduced noise, dust, and solid waste, and expanded green spaces, contributing to protecting the environment and promoting sustainable development.
Hoa Binh police are collecting public feedback on amendments to the 2013 Constitution via the national identification app VNeID. This innovative approach marks a giant leap towards modernising grassroots democracy and enhancing transparency in public consultation.
A total public investment capital of 113 billion VND (over 4.3 million USD) was disbursed for a project to upgrade infrastructure and stabilise residents in the vicinity of the Da River reservoir between 2021 and the first quarter of 2025, giving a facelift to local rural areas and improving the quality of people's life.
Since the end of 2023-2024 academic year, Cu Yen Primary and Secondary School in Luong Son district has deployed e-study records for all of its 500 primary students, said the school principal Nguyen Thi Tuyen.
The Labour Federation of Hoa Binh city has actively worked to protect the rights and welfare of nearly 8,000 local workers and union members at 152 grassroots unions. Through regular dialogues, education campaigns, and welfare programmes, the federation has helped foster stable, progressive labour relations.