Fecal Sludge Management
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The very first integrated fecal sludge management project in Vietnam is being constructed in Ben Tre province, in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. Since 2017, Ben Tre’s provincial government and the Women’s Union have shown their commitment to participate and carry out the Fecal Sludge Management project activities in Ben Tre city. With the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the project is currently in its the final stage of constructing a fecal sludge treatment plant in Ben Tre city. After three months of trial operation and testing, the plant will be handed over to Ben Tre city government and officially operated by the end of 2020. This treatment plant construction was co-financed by both Ben Tre provincial government and Gates Foundation. From 2020, with funding from Water for Women Fund, a programme of the Australia’s Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), East Meets West will continue to provide technical support to implement an integrated city-wide fecal sludge management pilot in Ben Tre city. This pilot project will benefit over 600,000 people by solving environmental issues relating to fecal sludge emptied from over 100,000 septic tanks built for the last decade in this city.
