As a result of a request from the Dept Health Poukood we went to visit the village of Na Kah.

This village is desperately in need of a good and safe water supply.

Nah Kah is 41 km and 2 hours drive NNE from Poukood. The road is very rough and windy climbing up into the mountains to about 1400m before descending down into a valley along the side of cliffs to the village at 700m

It is Khmou village (3^rd ethnic Lao group)

Has 47 houses strung out along the main road , about 17 on the L side and 30 on the right. Houses extend to about 50m on the L and up to 100m on the right.

The village stretches approx 750 m along the road.

There is electricity and mobile service. Some houses are  connected to electricity and some have TV.

Elevation at the top of the village is 680 m and at the bottom approx 650m asl.

There is a river flowing about 500m from the village but run off from nearby paddy makes that polluted. They boil all water and mix with herbs to get rid of the smell. Young kids fetch the water from as far upstream as possible.

About  half the  houses do not have toilets.

The preferred water source is back up the road and inland at a height of approx 750-800m and is approx 1000m from the top house.

The Naiban, Mr. Si Thar has asked for water supply, toilets for those that do not have them and water filtration kits.

The village will do all the work under supervision of Dept Health.

John Salter, Operations Manager MiVAC Lao PDR