A national Water and Sanitation week under the theme “Water is the blood of life” was launched in northern Phu Tho province on April 23 by the National Steering Committee for Water Supply and Environmental Hygiene.

Deputy Minister of National Resources and Environment Pham Khoi Nguyen said over the past 10 years of implementing the national water and sanitation week, many models of water supply and environmental hygiene have been successfully applied, contributing to raising the number of safe water users across the country to more than 60 percent and the number of households having hygienic latrines to over 50 percent.

In addition, there has been public awareness of the need to protect environment and water resources, Mr Nguyen said.