Only 4% of village tap water production clean enough for drinking

The Public Health Ministry plans to have 1,750 more village tap-water plants meet hygiene standards this year after the ministry found that only 420 of all villages nationwide have tap water clean enough for drinking.

Deputy Public Health Minister Dej-is Khaothong said the ministry surveyed 10,271 tap-water plants nationwide from 2018 to 2024, and found that only 420, or 4% of them, produced water hygienic enough for consumption.

The survey covered only some of the 69,028 tap-water plants around the country. But the finding led to the assumption that most tap-water production in villages around the country did not meet hygiene standards for drinking.

As a result, Dej-is said, the Public Health Ministry announced a 3C policy for village tap-water plants around the country, meaning the water from the plant must be clear, must be clean, and must use chlorine to kill germs in the water.

Dej-is said the policy has been implemented as a pilot project in Songkhla, Trang, Phatthalung, Satun, Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces.
 

As part of the policy’s implementation, Dej-is said, he and Dr Amporn Benjapolpithak, director general of the Health Department, signed a cooperation contract with 12 agencies in Songkhla to ensure that tap water from village plants in the southern province would be clean enough for drinking.

Dej-is said the ministry would push for at least 1,750 more village water plants to be certified for producing clean water for drinking this year, and most of them will be in Songkhla.