LoCAL brings affordable and safe water in rural communities of Cambodia through local governments and public - private partnerships
Article by Cedric Jancloes, Photos by Chheang Veasna and Sokkhol Yi. Field reporting and contributions from GRET and NCDDS.
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Communities in Battambang, a province known for rice paddies and agricultural production, are looking forward to getting clean drinking water through a new network of taps and pipes. The project is a first for the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility, bringing together public and private capital as part of the facility’s performance based-approach and could serve as a model for replication elsewhere.
Some 20,000 people from Rukh Kiri District will benefit from durable, affordable and safe water systems after the allocation of a USD 1,5 million budget from the Korean Overseas Development Assistance, that will be supplemented with private sector finance.
This month, a team of experts from GRET, a coalition of French NGOs working in the water and sanitation sector, and from Cambodia’s National Committee for Sub-national Democratic Development Secretariat (NCDD-S), conducted a survey on the community’s water needs and current water usage.
The teams met with local authorities, commune councilors and community members to better inform the design of the project that spans over the next two years.
“Both the people and the authorities were really eager and happy to see us – they all welcome the project” said Chheang Veasna, a business entrepreneur from the capital Phnom Penh and one of the potential investors in the project. “Everyone we met for the survey said they want to get tap-water, not only because it is much more convenient to use but also it is going to make people save a lot of money too.”
Mr Ohm Moeun, the First Chair of Basac District inspects ongoing works with the technical project team and private entrepreneur Mr Cheang Veasna.
The price for the piped water is to be fixed by the Ministry of Water Resources at between 2300 and 2600 riels per cubic metre (the equivalent of 45 to 55 US cents). Before villagers were paying between USD 5 and 7.50 for the same amount of water that was delivered by truck. Not only was that water of questionable quality, it was also in limited supply. Villagers were unable to get the water they needed, not be sure when it would arrive.
A water delivery truck in Rukhak Kiri.
“Everyday, the people from my district would buy water from the truck that takes the water from the Basac River,” said local government official, Ohm Moeun, the First Chair of Basac District. “When they call the water truck, they can only order two cubic meters at a time. The truck is rarely available and people sometimes have to wait up to a day.”
Importantly, this innovative scheme supports local authorities to take over new functions related to water management. They will benefit from the knowledge and experience of various technical partners such as K-Water and GRET, and the project is implemented by the NCDD-S that uses the LoCAL mechanism and its Performance-Based Climate Resilience Grants to build capacities of local governments to better manage and adapt to climate impacts.
“Rukh Kiri is an outstanding target district where we have already had many successful achievements using PBCRGs. The reason we selected this area for this project is because this area faces many climate impacts like droughts, and because clean water was not yet available for these local communities,” explained Kosal Sar, one of the leading technical experts from UNCDF and a pioneer of the LoCAL approach.
Building on LoCAL in Cambodia
The LoCAL Performance Based Climate Resilience Grant (PBCRG) system was introduced in Cambodia in 2011 to provide climate finance to local governments and their communities. Using globally recognised adaptation instruments, local governments are enabled to mainstream climate change adaptation in their development plans and deliver on adaptation solutions that meet communities' priorities. The Royal Government of Cambodia’s National Committee for Sub-national Democratic Development Secretariat (NCDD-S) has been leading these efforts and as a result, the NCDD-S has been accredited as National Implementing Entity (NIE) to the Green Climate Fund, allowing NCDD-S to access climate finance to scale up the Performance Based Climate Resilience Grant System to increase resilience at local level.
From PBCRGs to PPPs
By partnering with national and regional partners, LoCAL brings climate finance additionality without taking away resources for regular development actions through the innovative PBCRGs system: while NCDD-S is federating efforts to scale up PBCRGs, it Is also committed to continuously bring about innovation and with LoCAL support is now piloting innovative models that engage the public and private sector to bring essential services to populations in rural areas. With support from the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea, UNCDF and NCDD-S are working on Innovative Decentralized Water Solutions to Provide Safety and Resilience for Residential Water Systems.
"The project contributes to to the government policy reform on Functional Assignment and to allows the Sub-national administration to seek an opportunity to mobilize additional international and domestic P.P.P. investments in water resources. This is the uniqueness of LoCAL and another reason why it resonates with the Korean involvement in this sector,” said Mr Sar.
The initiative aims to help local governments to operationalise newly transferred functions in the area of water management and planning of water resources taking into account climate change risks. Key activities focus on improving service delivery and increasing institutional capacity and coordination for integrated water management especially for the diversification of livelihoods by local communities.
In total 20,000 people are to benefit from durable, affordabe and safe water systems for a total budget of 1,5 M USD. Invesments in small-scale projects under this proposal are intended to be public / community owned/operated with the potential to generate cashflow through water tariffs / user fees.
It is expected that the project will develop a replicable model solution that can be scaled to improve water management and increase service delivery of “affordabe and safe water” in rural communities of Cambodia through local governments and Public Private Partnerships.
"This project will bring clean water to the rural area in Cambodia, starting with this pilot project as we try to find a mechanism or model where local governments and the private sector are able to work together as part of the government reform on functional assignment. " said Kulrisa Shayavee, Programme Management Analyst at UNCDF, who worked on the development and design of LoCAL since its inception in Cambodia.
The scaling of this model could further enhance the resilience and adaptive capacity of rural communities by mitigating impacts and risks related to water resources in vulnerable areas in Cambodia.
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