The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-Water) today in New York, USA. The partnership’s aim is to help rural people in having access to clean water and improving their livelihoods but attaining the technical capacities for water management, in collaboration with their local governments.

Since its inception in 1967, K-Water has exerted itself to improve the quality of life and the general public health by efficiently providing high quality water through a constant development of water resources. This MoU aims to get a step closer to providing better water management and resources in this rural areas of the least developed countries (LDCs). This will also support in understanding the local governments’ needs in terms of improving beneficiaries’ capacities and assisting in providing clean water in rural areas. The partnership aims in supporting local governments with the technical expertise and building the foundation for providing clean water to the local community in a sustainable manner.

Kulrisa Shayavee, Programme Management Analyst for the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility (LoCAL), was present at the field visit, explaining: "The necessity of clean water is a basic human right, this is why this MoU signing is important. The combination of both organizations' expertise in the field can open new doors [in terms of water management] for people living in the rural areas of LDCs."

As a way of gaining a better understanding of the importance of the partnerships, officials from both entities went on a field visit to Battambang, Cambodia. The joint mission included a visit to the area where the existing pipelines to examine where they need repairs, which are broken and to determine what the quality of water pumping through those pipes was. Moreover, the official gained an understanding of how the improvement of these pipelines will benefit the local community in the last mile of Cambodia. This, will in turn, lay the grounds for the improvement of and fixing of the existing structures and shed light on the possibility of expansion.

K-water is committed to developing the cooperation model through our experience and knowledge in order to solve international water issues such as insufficient water infrastructure and sanitation that Korea experienced in the past. Since 2017, UNCDF and K-water have been discussing ways to proceed with cooperation, in the field of water management in areas that need it most. K-water has participated in the water supply cooperative project in Cambodia, providing technical expertise to address issues of climate change adaptation.

Based on this MoU, K-water hopes the Cambodia project will act as a stepping stone to actively cooperate on future projects with UNCDF to solve water issues in LDCs and beyond.

The MoU is one of the many commitments UNCDF’s LoCAL programme has established in the last mile of LDCs in the three continents it works in. The partnership aims to bring the local government together with the beneficiaries in creating a better water management system in rural Cambodia. This will help the community to become resilient in terms of climate change adaptation and in times of environmental shocks.

​The UNCDF LoCAL programme serves as a mechanism to integrate climate change adaption into local governments’ planning and budgeting systems, increase awareness of and response to climate change at the local level, and increase the amount of finance available to local governments for climate change adaption.