Vietnam Evangelical Covenant Church – At the end of 2023, with 21 million dong in support from the Community Development Ministry, the people of Vùng Kho village (Đakrông commune, Đakrông district, Quảng Trị province) piped water from a forest spring to their village with their own hands. The gravity-fed water for Vùng Kho village project was completed after just one week of work, to the joy of the whole community.
See photos: photos of the gravity-fed water project on the Community Development Ministry fanpage
245 Households Still Using Pond and Stream Water
Vùng Kho village was formed in 2019 by merging two villages, Cu Pua (75 households) and Vùng Kho (170 households). It is a remote village, home mostly to Pa Cô and Vân Kiều people.
Although a clean water system had been built before, the historic floods of 2020 badly damaged many water supply projects in Đakrông district, especially in the village communes. Many pipes and tanks were buried, washed away or broken. Since then, the people of Vùng Kho have again had to use pond, river and stream water for daily life, which is especially hard in the dry season.
Letting the Community Own the Project
After surveying the site, the ministry decided to fund materials so the villagers could build a gravity-fed water system to the village. What was special is that the ministry did not hire a contractor, but encouraged the community itself to plan, buy materials and mobilize one another to pipe clean water from the old-growth forest stream to the village.
This approach lowers costs and helps the villagers understand and take responsibility for their project, so they can maintain and protect it for years. It is also the spirit the ministry pursues in many projects: not doing things for people, but walking alongside them so the community stands on its own feet.
Living Water Reaches the Village After One Week
Thank God, after just one week of work, the people of Vùng Kho brought the spring water to their village. The ministry’s total support was 21 million dong. Right after completion, representatives of the villagers sent a thank-you letter to the Community Development Ministry for helping them get clean water.
Reading that letter, the ministry team remembered God’s promise to those in need:
“The poor and needy seek water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. I, the LORD, will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the barren heights, and fountains in the middle of the valleys.” (Isaiah 41:17–18)
Clean Water Is the Foundation of Health
For highland villages, clean water is the first condition for protecting health, especially for children and the elderly. With water near home, families walk less to carry water, children have more time to study and the risk of waterborne disease drops. A modest amount of support, placed in the right spot and embraced by the community, can change the lives of hundreds of households.
After Vùng Kho, the ministry went on to carry out clean water projects in Bru-Vân Kiều villages in Quảng Trị in 2024.
Let Us Pray Together
- For the gravity-fed water system in Vùng Kho to last and serve the villagers for many years.
- For the health and lives of the Pa Cô and Vân Kiều people in Đakrông to keep improving.
- For the ministry to keep reaching communities that are still disadvantaged.
Read more in Community Development and Church News. Contact the church office: 0942 248 688 (Zalo available).
