The Persea project (Sustainable access to water and sanitation services in rural areas in the province of Luang Prabang, in Laos) ended in late May after two years of implementation. To mark the occasion, a workshop and a ceremony of transfer infrastructures were organised by the provincial health authorities.
The objective of the Persea project was to improve living conditions of rural communities via regular access to a source of safe water and hygienic toilets, in homes and schools. Funded by the , the project made it possible to support 13 multi-ethnic rural villages in three districts of the province. These villages, like many others in Laos, are often left to their own devices for access to water and sanitation, contrary to urban areas where water supply services are multiplying.
The project’s main achievements are twelve gravity-fed water networks that were built or rehabilitated, and six school sanitary facilities. Today, almost 900 households (i.e. 4,700 people) have access to water near their home, and 180 further families have hygienic toilets. In schools, 600 pupils benefitted from the project activities.
GRET was working in partnership with the association, mobilising its expertise for governance of water networks and development of access to sanitation taking a market approach – the objective of which is to detect unmet requirements by re-considering supply in terms of competition.
Authorities in the province want to continue the project and a new phase is currently being prepared.
