Student Village Officers from Guizhou complete course on water and sanitation project management

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In mid-March, more than 20 young Student Village Officers (SVOs) selected from 3 counties in Guizhou Province, China, participated in Lien AID’s training which prepares them for the role of water and sanitation project management to tackle these issues in their rural villages.

Led by Lien AID Programme staff, China Association of Poverty Alleviation and Development (CAPAD) representatives, and a Beijing Tsinghua University photojournalism graduate student, the training consisted of experienced Student Village Officers sharing lessons from the process of implementing their projects, learning about the various stages of project management, as well as photography tips and other requirements for project documentation.

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SVOs also participated in discussions, interactive quizzes, and simulation of scenarios and felt positive about the entire experience.

To find out more, take a look at our Village Water Management Programme.

Pilot CWEs launched in one of the poorest communes in rural Vietnam, bringing affordable clean drinking water to 8 villages

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In late March, Lien AID was in the Tra Vinh Province of Vietnam to hand over two Community-based Water Social Enterprises (CWEs) to the Da Loc Commune, following the completion of a successful pilot that will benefit more than 15,000 people across 8 villages.

The CWEs consist of bottled water treatment plants that treat contaminated water into clean drinking water, using low-pressure reverse osmosis. Fully funded by Lien AID, the pilot was a collaborative effort with the Provincial Centre for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (PCERWASS) and National Centre for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (NCERWASS).

“The aim of the pilot is to assess the effectiveness of the CWE approach in providing affordable clean drinking water in rural communities in Vietnam. We hope that this model will catalyze an alternative approach to the provision of a water supply in rural Vietnam. Particularly, one that continues to be affordable to small/remote rural communities,” explained Lien AID CEO, Mr. Koh Lian Hock.

As one of the poorest communes in the Tra Vinh province, and inhabited by a high concentration of ethnic Kh’mer, Da Loc has very low access to clean drinking water, with the added problem of high levels of salinity and alkalinity affecting their water sources. Due to rising sea levels, this is a condition common to coastal areas like Da Loc.

Many villagers cannot afford commercially-bottled water and resort to drinking from unsafe water sources, risking their health.

Thach Thi Dan is 30-years-old and lives in Huong Phu B village. Before the community-based water social enterprise was built, her family drank water pumpled from a dug well, which they rudimentarily treated on their own with chemicals such as alum. They also drank rainwater.”

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Both CWEs began operations in April, with the water sold costing a fraction of the price of commercially-produced bottled water sold in the market.

 

To find out more, take a look at our Community Water Enterprise Programme.

Lien AID and BBR Holdings hand over three Cambodian CWEs to their communities

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In mid-March, Lien AID and a local public-listed engineering and construction firm BBR Holdings (Singapore) Limited, officially handed over three Community Water Enterprises (CWEs) and water treatment systems to the communes of Koah Dach, Peam Raing, and Kport Ateav in the Kandal province, Cambodia.

Identified by the Ministry of Rural Development (MRD) as one of seven provinces in Cambodia with the highest arsenic levels in the primary water source of ground water, Kandal has areas that are still in need of a sustainable source of safe drinking water.

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In their first Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme, BBR Holdings partnered Lien AID in 2013 to develop a CWE at Koah Dach commune in Cambodia, and kindly donated US$30,000 to fund this project.

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In addition to the CWE project, BBR Holding’s CSR outreach team, BBR CAREs, further donated sports equipment and learning aid tools to the nearby Ronas Primary School, and carried out oral hygiene lessons with the students, and played sports and games with them.

To find out more about how you can partner with us, take a look at our Get Involved page, or drop us a note.

Lien AID signs MOAs with five Cambodia commune councils to start work on Community Water Enterprises

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Lien AID has signed Memorandum of Agreements (MOAs) with five Cambodian commune councils from Preak Reusey, Peam Cheleang, Prasat, Boeng Pruol, and Kaoh Samrong (Kampong Cham Province, Kandal Province) to start development of Community Water Enterprises (CWEs) in these communes. These projects are located along the Mekong River and are scheduled for completion in the second half of 2014.

The installation of CWEs at these new sites follow the highly successful pilot initiated at Chnok Trou in 2010 which to date, continues to provide an affordable and sustainable source of clean water for the commune and neighboring villages.

Safe drinking water remains a challenge for many communities living on floating villages and along the floodplains, where contaminated river water is used for cooking and drinking. In addition, in some provinces like Kandal, groundwater cannot be consumed due to its high levels of arsenic, leaving many with little option but to risk water-borne illnesses from ingesting river water.

These communities also face uncertainty in terms of food and job prospects. Depleting fish stocks has resulted in 20 per cent, or 400 families leaving Chnok Trou for dry land and greater work and education opportunities in the last two years, according to a report by Channel News Asia.

In the face of uncertain income, hard choices will be made by these communities with many favouring utilizing their hours engaging in income-generating activities such as fishing, and therefore drinking water with as minimal treatment effort necessary, despite the risk.

Therefore it is even more important that efforts continue to be channeled towards ensuring that these communities have access to a sustainable source of clean drinking water that they can afford.

Since signing these agreements between 19 and 26 February, needs assessments for all sites have concluded and installation work has begun. An estimated 39, 317 people across two provinces will  benefit.

To find out more about our work in Cambodia, take a look at Where We Work – Cambodia.

Opinion : Finding right local champions key to maximum impact

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Currently, there are still poverty-stricken communities in China that are in dire need of resources, many of whom live in mountainous and isolated communities.

Each year, we receive numerous genuine appeals for help from local communities which we put through a stringent process when identifying poor rural communities in need of water and sanitation improvements in China.

We realize that an important step lies in finding the right local champions to ensure these projects achieve maximum impact for our beneficiaries. We do this through our Village Water Management (VWM) programme, where we work directly with residents of the villages itself to help oversee the progress of these projects.

The rigorous selection process for Student Village Officers (大学生村官） for our projects involves an independent panel including water and sanitation experts from China and Singapore, which also evaluates the feasibility of water and sanitation proposals. As part of a needs assessment process, our staff visit shortlisted project sites and speak directly with benefiting communities to establish their needs and ensure project sustainability.

Through our work on the ground with our chosen NGO partner, China Association for Poverty Alleviation and Development (CAPAD), and direct interaction with the Student Village Officers and beneficiaries, we are able to see first hand, how all our resources are allocated, and how it creates value for our stakeholders.

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To date, our VWM programme has been well supported by CAPAD and Chinese authorities. We look forward to working with them again this month, when we conduct a training session for more than 20 selected Student Village Officers in Guizhou Province.

To find out more, take a look at our Village Water Management Programme.

Meet a water entrepreneur

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Meet Mr. Bun Ratha, a friendly Cambodian, highly-skilled in nuts and bolts, and with a gift for fixing machinery. Regarded as a reliable and responsible person, he was appointed as a water entrepreneur by his community in Kaul Banteay Commune (Kampong Chhnang Province) to manage the commune’s first Community Water Enterprise.

Developed by Lien AID, the Community Water Enterprise is part of the organisation’s Gift of Water programme and deploys social enterprise fundamentals to provide a sustainable and affordable source of clean drinking water for rural communities in need.

The water treatment system is designed to effectively treat nearby river water sources into clean drinking water quality in a cost-effective manner. Then, Lien AID works with local resources for the building and the construction. Bun Ratha also receives training from the organisation to :

1) operate and maintain the water treatment system
2) set up the sustainable social business, which pays no dividend, enabling a low and affordable water price for the villagers.

 “After people drink clean water, they are healthy. When they are healthy, their expenditure on medicine is reduced and they have more time to earn their living,” says Bun Ratha.

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Meet China’s Water Gladiators

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We’ve always made it a point to listen to the local community. We pay attention to their personal stories of hardship, like their experiences of going on long backbreaking treks to collect a single bucket of water from the nearest water source. We then include the local community’s voices to inform our decisions from the design to the completion of an initiative, to ensure that their water and sanitation concerns are addressed in the most effective and sustainable manner.

This November, friends of Lien AID were given the opportunity to meet and listen to four Student Village Officers (SVOs) who had traveled from their rural provinces of Chongqing, Gansu and Guizhou to Singapore to better understand water policies, governance and management to apply in their projects to achieve sustainable impact. SVOs are young graduates deployed by the Chinese government for a period of up to 3 years in rural villages in order to improve administration in these communities. We empower and groom selected SVOs to effective implement water projects at their respective villages. These SVOs champion these projects, and working together with the local communities, ensure the sustainability of the infrastructure.

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BASF and Lien AID implement social enterprise for floating village on Tonle Sap lake in Cambodia

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BASF, the world’s leading chemical company, together with Lien AID, a non-profit organization with a strong track record in implementing sustainable water infrastructure projects for poor rural villages, celebrated the successful launch of a community-owned water treatment plant project in Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia. The project aims to improve the access to affordable clean water for 620 villagers residing on the Tonle Sap river.

In this unique partnership, Lien AID, which has already established 18 successful community water enterprises across 29 villages in two provinces, will provide project mentoring based on their strong experience. Five BASF management trainees are acting as “business consultants” for the project, contributing innovative ideas and at the same time gaining hands-on social interaction experience through their involvement from needs assessment to project implementation.

Mr Dean Draper, Managing Director, ASEAN Sub-region, BASF South East Asia Pte Ltd, said, “By 2050, more than nine billion people will live on this planet. While the planet’s resources are finite, this will pose huge challenges. BASF sees innovations powered by chemistry as enabler in addressing the challenges in resources, environment and climate – in this case, access to clean water – becoming increasingly important.

A joint initiative between Lien AID and BASF, the project is a platform for the company to develop and implement a water-treatment infrastructure in Kampong Chhnang Province for some 100 households. It adopts a social enterprise model – following the successful launch, a chosen “water entrepreneur” from the village will take over and operate the plant, providing affordable, safe drinking water to the community which lives entirely on the Ton Le Sap Lake. Currently, about 53% of the inhabitants fall sick more than once a month from water borne diseases.

The project was developed as part of a larger existing programme by Lien AID, “The Gift of Water for Floating Communities and Communities on the Floodplains and on Land”. BASF is the first company that Lien AID has partnered with for this programme.

The programme takes a holistic approach that not only addresses the specific needs of the beneficiaries but also lays the foundation for long-term benefits for the communities including community ownership and a gradual change in hygiene behaviors.” said Draper.

“The programme continues to yield positive outcomes, with Lien AID’s first pilot community water enterprise launched in 2010 still benefiting the community. We chose to work with BASF for this particular site as we are impressed by how sustainability is part of the company’s corporate purpose, and the efforts BASF puts into employee development,” commented Mr Koh Lian Hock, Chief Executive Officer, Lien AID.

For BASF, this sustainability project also has an important employee development element under the “Grow ASEAN Graduate Development Program” which was launched in July 2012. Targeting young graduates from different disciplines throughout ASEAN, the 18-month programme aims to identify, develop and retain a diverse group of talents to support the future growth of BASF. The first run saw the recruitment of five trainees from Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

“Taking part in such an initiative enables our young colleagues to collaborate across borders as well as provides them with a more holistic personal and career development opportunity”, said Draper. “This project for water is one of the many ways how BASF contributes to conserving resources, ensuring healthy food and nutrition and improving people’s quality of life.”

To learn more about our programmes, take a look at Implement Sustainable Programmes.

First Community Water Enterprise pilot in Vietnam offers new hope for a community in one of poorest provinces in the Mekong Delta

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The provinces of Tra Vinh remains one of the poorest in the Mekong Delta, with a high concentration of ethnic minority people (Kh’mer) residing in the area. Living conditions are made even more challenging with water sources in the coastal province severely affected by salinity and alkalinity problems, due to the rising sea levels. Unfortunately, many are unable to afford commercially-bottled water and risk their lives daily by drinking from unsafe water sources.

Consuming from unsafe water sources daily affects health, with poor people further burdened with rising costs to pay for healthcare and treatment.

Earlier this month, Lien AID initiated the construction of the first pilots of its Community Water Enterprise in Vietnam’s Da Loc Commune in Tra Vinh Province, in an official groundbreaking ceremony attended by the officials from the Vietnamese government, including the Director of PCERWASS, Mr. Bui Van Mung.

Lien AID’s first community water enterprise was launched in 2010 in Cambodia’s Kampong Chhnang Province. Three years later, it continues to provide a sustainable and affordable source of clean drinking water for the 1,000 people in the floating community on the Ton Le Sap. Since then, Lien AID has completed 16 community water enterprises in two Cambodian provinces.

Now with the expansion of the programme to Vietnam, Lien AID intends to provide a sustainable and affordable source of clean drinking water for the poorer rural communities there.

These pilots are a joint collaborative effort between Lien AID and the local government. “PCERWASS (Provincial Centre for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation) has collaborated closely with Lien AID and NCERWASS (National Centre for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation) throughout the project development processes and highly support the intervention to pilot the two community water enterprises in Da Loc Commune,” stated Mr. Bui.

15, 134 people across 8 villages in Da Loc Commune are expected to benefit from the development of two community water enterprises.

Enabling local champions to tackle water woes at poor rural villages in China

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“Most of the villagers have been manually transporting water for their entire lives. Some of them walk up to 5 kilometers per trip to collect water. To them, to be able to obtain water by just turning on the tap is a miracle. With access to a regular and permanent water source, the lives of these villagers will turn for the better.” -Student Village Officer, Chongqing Municipality

Lien AID continues with a revolutionary collaboration with the China Association of Poverty Alleviation and Development (CAPAD) in combating water woes in rural China. This is an ambitious program that is pioneering a holistic and comprehensive approach to identify and empower local champions in implementing appropriate water intervention projects in poor rural villages.

As part of a three-days training, Lien AID, CAPAD and the Chongqing Poverty Alleviation and Development co-organized a seminar for close to 50 Student Village Officers (SVOs) / 大学生村官 selected from the southwestern region of Chongqing, Guizhou, Yunnan and Hubei provinces. The training sessions were tailored to train the SVOs in project management, as well as create a platform for exposure of water issues for the SVOs; after which a ‘call for proposals’ will determine projects to be seeded for implementation subsequently.

Attendees included representatives from Lien AID; CAPAD; Chongqing Poverty Alleviation and Development; Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute (NEWRI), Nanyang Technological University; experts from the China Center Control for Disease and Prevention; as well as the SVOs.

“Educating the SVOs is a vital step in ensuring proper implementation and follow-through of projects. Passion alone will not solve the problem; knowledge plays a huge role in contributing to a sustainable project with long-term benefits for the communities. We are hopeful that with commitment and support from the SVOs, local governments and communities, combined with proper know-how, we will witness a phenomenal change amongst the rural communities in time to come.” -Huang Zhu Shao, Vice Director (CAPAD)

This multi-year program aims to reach out to 100 poverty-stricken villages from 2012 to 2016, benefiting an estimated 100,000 beneficiaries (poor villagers); and will enhance the water and sanitation knowledge of 100 SVOs.

Projects selection will focus on Provinces with a large number of poverty-stricken villages such as Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Chongqing, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shannxi, Shanxi and Sichuan.

Thirteen projects have been completed in Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Ningxia, Chongqing and Guizhou, with 9 others slated to be completed by end 2013. The program aims to select and implement up to 25 water projects at poverty-stricken villages annually, over the subsequent years.

To find out more about our work in China, take a look at Where We Work – China.