CSO-Public partnership to favor safe water access in rural areas

Background

Climate change is perhaps the largest threat faced by water systems. It manifests as shock (e.g. increased droughts and flooding, more severe storms) and stress events (e.g. reducing groundwater levels, rising oceans), and requests that water systems build resilience to guard themselves against potentially devastating effects. As a country highly vulnerable to climate change, Cambodia is hit by extreme weather events such as floods and droughts, increasingly threatening the quality and continuity of service of water supply systems specifically in rural areas.

Through its Department of Rural Water Supply (DRWS), the Ministry of Rural Development is responsible for providing water supply services in rural communities. The DRWS as the leader of the project and Teuk Saat 1001 is joining together to provide long term access of safe drinking water to at least 2 rural communities and to build capacity of public servants of the safe drinking water sector.

Overall Objective

Mutualization of innovative solutions and methodologies to achieve access to safe water especially in drought affected rural communes, where 2 water kiosks will be implemented

Specific Objectives

1. Safe water provision with the establishment of 2 sustainable communal-owned water kiosks in 2 communes affected by drought in Takeo province;
2. Proposing drought solutions to private and public water suppliers, aiming to strengthen their resilience to drought impact; and
3. Supporting the Rural Water Supply Sanitation and Hygiene objectives with the active collaboration between Teuk Saat 1001 and Department of Rural Water Supply of Ministry of Rural Development to reach Cambodian SDGs targets.

Approach

Through this project the DRWS and TS 1001 will cooperate to attain above objectives. The water kiosks will be implemented following TS1001 methodologies, proven over 15 years of experiences.

To avoid drought harming the operation of water supply services, DRWS and TS1001 will conduct workshops with provincial administration to produce a technical guideline preventing against drought impact, aiming to provide safe water to rural communities at all times.

Beside the cooperation aimed to scale up the access to safe water in rural areas, reaching targets mentioned in the National Action Plan.

This project will enable the creation of 6 new jobs and an estimated 4000 people having access to climate-resilient safe water Workshops between DRWS, PDRD, and TS 1001 will be conducted several times during the project. The participants would be the officers at the national and subnational levels in charge of the drinking water sector. The workshops will be the opportunity for everyone to propose tools and mechanisms to target the national WASH objectives.

Outputs and Key Activities

Result Key Activities
  • 2 climate resilient water kiosks produced safe water even during drought episode
  • Private and public Water Supply infrastructure followed best practices develop in guideline to cope with drought situation
  • The collaboration between the applicants contribute to achieve national targets as defined in the MRD-NAP
  • Selecting communes affected by drought to establish water kiosks, and follow the operation during 2 years
  • Workshop and trainings between national and provincial authorities, and water producers to introduce methodologies and practices applied in the water sector and respecting water resources
  • Workshops and training are conducted to recognize the water kiosk model as a safely managed water supply services, following the JMP ladder definition

Knowledge Products

• Guideline • Lessons learned and recommendations • Workshops and training manuals

Timeframe Total Budget Partners Location

June 2021 to November 2022

USD 107, 822
(From CCCA US$99,567)

The Department of Rural Water Supply, of the Ministry of Rural Development Teuk Saat 1001

Takeo Province