Building Climate Resilience for Rural Water Supply Infrastructures in Cambodia (bcr-ws)

Cambodia has abundance water resources, but its quantity and quality vary in different locations and seasons. For example, the highland and coastal areas usually face low water distribution toward the dry season. The growing demands of water for different purposes in agriculture, industry, and fisheries sectors also brought pressure on water availability. According to the climate change project in Cambodia, temperature will be higher and rainfall patterns will become erratic. Droughts will reduce recharge capacity of aquifer. Flooding events will damage existing water infrastructure and cause erosion and land degradation of the riverbanks. Increasing incidences of diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and water borne diseases (diarrhea, cholera) caused from floods and respiratory disease are associated with droughts.

The provision of water supply and sanitation services is particularly vulnerable to the projected changes in climate conditions (temperature and precipitation among others). Water supply and sanitation infrastructure may experience a greater risk of damage because of the frequent and/or more intense extreme weather events, floods, and drought. In addition, warmer temperatures may increase evaporation from surface waters and reduce water supply availability. This project was designed to support the implementation of some actions for building and upgrading the water supply infrastructure to be climate resilient through developing institutional capacity, coordination, testing, and using tools and technical guideline produced by development partners such as CCCA, UNICEF and ADB.

The proposed project aims to increase access to safe water and sanitation for all year round of Rural communities in project target areas

1. Strengthen institutional capacity on adaption and mitigation options for the rural water supply infrastructures;
2. Increase climate resilient rural water supply infrastructures in project target areas; and
3. Increase awareness of vulnerable communities in the project target areas; and climate change impacts, and the necessary adaptation and mitigation measures needed for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation.

• Training Modules • Practical Guideline for climate risk assessment and design, and O&M for climate resilient rural water supply infrastructure • A finding report on Cost and Benefit Analysis (CBA) • A short video on the process, methodologies and achievements of the project •A short concept note for climate-resilient water supply in Cambodia for the Green Climate Fund