The Provincial People's Committee held a meeting to listen to progress reports and resolve some problems with the Water is Life Project.

The Water is Life project is implemented by the Provincial Women's Union (VWU). The project has a support level of over VND 4.6 billion. The long-term goal of the project is to minimize gender-specific impacts of drought and saltwater intrusion in Ninh Thuan caused by El Nino. The intervention contributes to protecting women's livelihoods and improving access to water treatment and storage technologies. Beneficiaries are ethnic minority women, poor, near-poor or low-income women, and women with disabilities. The VWU is expected to provide 132 1,000-liter water tanks and 290 500-liter tanks to households in Thuan Nam and Thuan Bac districts and 6 health stations or schools in the province.

At the meeting, departments, branches and localities discussed some difficulties in the implementation of the project such as: Bidding activities for purchasing water storage equipment and tools to support households; expertise and techniques in implementing water-saving irrigation models to cope with drought.

Comrade Nguyen Long Bien, Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee chaired the meeting.

Concluding the meeting, the Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee suggested that, in the immediate future, the Provincial Women's Union should coordinate and consult with departments, branches and localities to develop a Technical Assistance Project Document using non-refundable ODA capital from the Japanese Government to support Ninh Thuan province to soon submit to the Provincial People's Committee for approval. After the project is approved, the Provincial Women's Union should coordinate with relevant branches and localities to develop a roadmap, goals and specific implementation progress; select the right beneficiaries and carry out good communication work, organize seminars, provide technical guidance and effective operation of the water supply system; at the same time, it is necessary to proactively hire a consulting unit to effectively manage, operate, inspect and supervise the project and implement relevant bidding procedures in accordance with the provisions of law, along with strengthening regular inspection and supervision of the project implementation process. He also emphasized that Ninh Thuan province is determined to remove difficulties and obstacles, speed up implementation progress, and complete the project's set goals.

Kim Thuy