Village well providing community water at Mai Chau

Village well providing community water at Mai Chau

A highland village well with a cement rim wall provides a community water source at Mai Chau. A red plastic pail suspended from a pole and washing basin are visible on the right. In the background, a young woman walks along a village path past a bamboo pole where laundry is drying.

Traditionally, Southeast Asian highlanders drew water for drinking, cooking, or washing from mountain streams. In larger areas, villages or households now build wells, which may require fetching water with pails, as seen here. Alternatively, the wells may be supplied with hand pumps or motorized pumps for accessing the water. Well water is clean enough for washing, but generally requires boiling for safe drinking.