An Hiep is one of 23 communes in Ba Tri District, Ben Tre Province. This is an agricultural commune, which is divided into two regions, namely mainland and island. An Hiep holds a population of 121881 people or 2724 households. The commune is considered the poorest region of Ba Tri District with the poverty rate of 26.48 %. Agriculture is the main source of income and employment. People grow paddy rice crop, coconut and raise buffalo, shrimp or poultry in small scale for food and exchanging at local markets. Fresh water allows farmer to farm 3 harvests per year; however, in salinity area, people can only farm maximum 2 harvests per year. Especially, soil in Dat Island is unable to farm because of the high salinity. Due to the great impact of poverty, people do not place much emphasis and importance on the education of their children. The drop-out -of-secondary-school rate is not too high; most of drop-out situations occur in Dat Island due to difficulties in travelling to school by ferry. Meanwhile, the chance of going on to higher education (high school or university) is especially low. There are 3 or 4 university students every year.

Located near the seashore, An Hiep only has two seasons: salt water and fresh water. Saline water cannot be used to serve either farming or living purposes; meanwhile, fresh water from canals is also contaminated, which limits its use to a great extent. The local water-filtering factory can only support one third of people’s demands and the water is also not fresh enough for cooking. Their only source of fresh water is from the rain. Therefore, during the rainy season, people employ all kinds of equipment to store water. This leads to an urgent need of having water tank so that rain can be stored and used efficiently even in the dry season.