An elderly war veteran is dedicating the rest of his life to promoting the frugal use of fresh water and helping needy people get access to clean water in Vietnam.

Despite his senior age and poor health, Pham Ba Dat, 83, remains active in designing and providing counseling for several community projects on fresh water.

The war veteran

Dat left his home in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) at the age of 16 to join the army without his family’s permission.

He spent 20 years in the military and was once critically injured on the Siem Riep battlefield in Cambodia in May 1954.

He also fought in Laos from 1959 to 1962. The man has mixed memories of water from his army years.

Once, while Dat and his comrades were marching in Cambodia, they stopped to spend the night in a deserted orange orchard.

The next morning, thinking that orange juice would satisfy their thirst just as fresh water does, the group decided to pour out the water from their 5-liter thermoses to make room for the delectable juice.

To their dismay, the more they drank the juice, the thirstier they felt. 

Desperate to quench their thirst, they drank water from a pond in which buffalos were bathing, Dat recalled.

It was then that he realized the indispensability of fresh water.

‘Destiny’ with water

In 1966, Dat was transferred to the Ministry of Water Resources, which was the starting point of his “love affair” with water.

In 1980, he was appointed director of Tau Cuoc Co. 2, which specialized in constructing irrigation works and other projects related to obtaining clean water.  

Since then, Dat has been concerned about how to help people in remote areas get access to clean water.

During a business trip to France, he accepted an offer from an international charity organization to provide technical counseling and connect it with community projects in Vietnam.

Projects on bringing clean water to communities were carried out in several provinces, including Lai Chau and Hai Duong in the north and Ha Tinh and Nghe An in the central region.

“It really saddened me to see that in several areas, entire villages don’t have a single drop of clean water. Kids suffer contagious diseases from using seriously polluted water,” Dat recalled.

He then conducted extensive research which showed that underground water was available in these areas.

Dat raised funding for the projects and his own engineers and workers did the designing and building to minimize costs.

“When I returned after some twenty years, it really moved me to tears that the underground water facilities we built still supply enough clean water to locals,” the old man shared.

His recent community project was launched in the southern province of Long An.

Clean water facilities have also been constructed lately in the province’s Long Thuan and Long Thanh Communes.

At 83, despite his poor eyesight, shaking hands and other ailments, he still sits at his computer every day, meticulously designing and working out project details.

He also does the fundraising work and even goes on field trips to project sites. The veteran is now busy working on raising funds for his next project.

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