Our Work

Water for Life: Asia

Students and teachers at the Dinh Dong Kindergarten in Vietnam depend each school day on a BioSand Water Filter to provide them with safe drinking water.

The small school in the Hanam province of northern Vietnam has a reservoir for rain water, but drinking from it can cause diarrhoea and other ailments. And so Samaritan’s Purse – Canada has installed a BioSand Water Filter to help safeguard everyone’s health.

“It is essential for us,” says Pham Thi Hau, the school’s deputy principal, as children crowd around the Canadian-designed concrete device to have their photo taken.

The BioSand Water Filter there is one of more than 8,000 that Samaritan’s Purse Canada has built and installed in Vietnam since 1998.

Although there are a few in schools and other public institutions, most of the filters are in individual households – serving families like Tran Thi Chanh and her husband and their three children.

Chanh says her rice-farming family has enjoyed improved health – including no more eye infections – since they began using a BioSand Water Filter two years ago. Improved health has enabled Chanh and her husband to continue working steadily in their farm fields, and has enabled their children to continue studying steadily in their local schools.

“I have encouraged my neighbours to use the filters because the (nearby) pond water is very dirty,” Chanh says.

Access to Clean Water

Ponds and other forms of surface water, plus rain water and shallow wells, are the only sources of drinking water for many of Vietnam’s 81 million people. Unfortunately, all of these sources are contaminated. Vietnam has large-scale water treatment facilities, but only in major cities. Everywhere else, BioSand Water Filters represent a cost-effective and sustainable way for Vietnamese families to access safe drinking water, plus improved health and productivity.

One regional government official, when asked to comment on the more than 8,000 filters that Samaritan’s Purse Canada has installed so far, says: “Your work here is very much appreciated. However, we could still use 100 times what you have provided.”

The average $100 cost (including materials) of building and installing a filter is roughly half of what some Vietnamese families earn during an entire year. Samaritan’s Purse believes strongly in having the recipients of water filters share in some of their construction and installation costs, because sharing instills a sense of ownership.

The solution for Chanh’s family – and for many others with very low incomes – is to pay only a very small share of the cost, but to also share in the filters’ construction. Chanh and her husband contributed the equivalent of $1.25, plus some crucial “sweat equity.”

“We are so thankful for the filter,” Chanh says with a smile. “We value it very much.”

Ways You Can Help
Pray Please pray that God will continue to provide direction to Samaritan’s Purse, as we respond to people’s needs, share the love of Christ, and serve the church worldwide.		Give The need is urgent. A child is dying every 20 seconds in the developing world from diarrhoeal diseases caused by polluted water. Donate Here.