Economic Assessment of Sanitation Interventions in Vietnam - WSP

Economic Assessment of Sanitation Interventions in Vietnam | Executive SummaryRespondents’ understanding of sanitation was taken primarilyfrom focus group discussions and the householdquestionnaire.The respondents have a comprehensive knowledge of sanitation.However, their answers also reflect the fact that inVietnam, people tend to think of sanitation as public sanitationrather than personal hygiene such as hand washingand stopping OD. The surveys found that OD does exist,despite the high rates of households with their own orshared toilets, especially in the Northern and Urban Centralsites.All people consider “no garbage” as a key element of goodsanitation. But the availability and type of solid waste management(SWM), as well as attitudes to solid waste, variedacross surveyed sites. More than 90% of households in allregions consider that the government should make SWM“somewhat of a priority” or a “high priority”. The householdsurvey showed that there is poor management of animalexcreta in both urban and rural areas. Almost all interviewees,especially in the North, stated that animal excretais to be found around their homes.The main reasons that households have toilets are for cleanliness,comfort and freedom, as well as being the societalnorm, especially in urban areas. Households without toiletsgave lower scores than households with toilets on key aspectsof sanitation. The reasons for not having a toilet includeda lack of money, not caring much about sanitation,and the availability of a neighbor’s or relative’s toilet nearby.In most urban and rural areas, wastewater from septic tanktoilets goes directly into an open drainage system, spoilingthe environment with its bad odor. Some people intervieweddo acknowledge the benefit of the wastewatertreatment. However, households living close to a treatmentstation suffer from bad odors, and the area still becomespolluted by overflow of wastewater from the station.E7. TOURISM BENEFITSIn the ESI survey of 300 tourist and business visitors toVietnam, 58% of respondents give a low score of 1 or 2(out of 5) for public toilets and 40% of respondents givea low score of 1 or 2 to toilets at bus stations. Seventy percentof tourist respondents were concerned that sanitationwww.wsp.orgconditions, tap water and food may cause diarrhea. Some33% and 69% of the causes of diarrhea are perceived to berelated to water and food, respectively.Among the 18% of tourists replying “maybe’’ or “hesitancy’’in respect to returning to Vietnam, 13% gave poorsanitation as a major or contributory reason. While poorsanitation is a general issue that needs to be tackled to makea tourist’s stay in Vietnam more enjoyable, it is neither adefining issue for tourists in terms of enjoyment of theirstay, nor a reason to stop the majority from coming back.In a different survey of 8,300 tourists conducted in 2005,74% of respondents considered Vietnam’s environment tobe clean and beautiful but only 66% of respondents saidthat they were satisfied with the sanitation facilities in theiraccommodation.E8. BUSINESS BENEFITSSurveyed businesses assigned different levels of importanceto environmental sanitation. The hotel business consideredenvironmental sanitation as the most important of all criteria.Beverage production and consumer goods firms considerthe quality of water sources as the most importantaspect of environmental quality. Consulting firms prefer toselect locations that provide their staff a pleasant environment,which should increase competitiveness. Sanitationimprovement means more business opportunities for almostall firms.E9. PROGRAM PERFORMANCEA program approach analysis (PAA) was conducted for 14selected programs to show the levels and determinants ofperformance of sanitation programs/projects.Urban sanitation: In most urban sanitation projects, thechallenges faced are technological option selection, qualityof design and construction, linked to consultant competency,administrative appraisal procedures, low ratesof household connection, financial sustainability, localcapacity for operations and maintenance (O&M), andmonitoring, evaluation and control in the implementationstages.A range of different sanitation technologies must be consideredduring project development. Local aspects to be consideredinclude low incomes, and topographical and otherxi