“Children in our cities used to fall ill more often than they do today. Nowadays my son Nguyễn Hà Manh Hùng hardly ever suffers from stomach problems”, says Hà Thi Huễ from Vietnam. They live in one of the 25 Vietnamese cities where Finland supported the improvement of water supply and sewerage systems in 2004–2017. More than 150 000 people now have access to household water and over 9 000 households are connected to the public sewerage system.

Locals use the expression ‘Finnish Water’ in metropolitan cities such as Hanoi and Haiphong, where cooperation in the water sector between Finland and Vietnam started as early as in the 1980s. Thanks to this cooperation, millions of people now enjoy access to clean water. Finnish and Vietnamese experts have jointly developed water supply and sewerage, wastewater treatment and floodwater management also in other cities in the country.

‘Finnish Water’ has an excellent reputation in Vietnam, and Finns are welcome partners of cooperation. Now that Vietnam has become more prosperous, the over 30 years of development cooperation is ending. In the water sector, Finland and Vietnam are transferring to commercial cooperation. Finnish experts in the water sector have already started cooperation projects in Vietnam.

Photo: Riikka Seppälä, graphics: Juho Hiilivirta