According to the 2014 Updated Report on the “Progress on Drinking Water and Sanitation Report” released by the World Health Organization and UNICEF, through collaborative efforts worldwide, the global community met the Millennium Development Goal’s (MDG) drinking water target, of 88% of the global population having access to improved water sources.
With better water infrastructure put in place through these collaborative efforts, many more communities were able to access to improved water sources more easily than previous years. Hand in hand with improving this access however, a conscious effort to educate and raise awareness to beneficiaries on the importance of drinking clean water is necessary to change behaviors, and further extend the sustainable impact achieved by the increased ease people have to access improved water sources.
This May, as part of our Community-based Water Social Enterprise (CWE) initiative, Lien AID’s team continued to travel to five locations, across two provinces in Cambodia (Kandal Province, Kampong Chhnang Province), to conduct health and hygiene awareness sessions with the assistance from the local government officials. At these sessions, information on the importance of drinking clean water and the negative effects of consuming contaminated water is shared interactively in a thought-provoking manner.
Changing behaviors does not occur overnight, but through these sessions, it is our intention to encourage and facilitate these changes in behavior, that if not addressed, may diminish the impact of an increased access to clean water.
We have listened to many water stories over the years. Last year, we spoke to some villagers in the Kampong Chhnang Province to get a better understanding of their water situation. Through conversations with the villagers, it drove home the point that raising awareness and educating villagerson the benefits of drinking clean water, and how drinking dirty water may cause water-related diseases such as diarrhea, has to go hand-in-hand with the improvement of clean water through the development of adequate and sustainable water infrastructure.
Seung Khom, Mother of 7 children, Kampong Chhnang Province
Seung Khom is a mother of 7 children. The adults and older children take turns fetching water for daily use. The family retrieves dirty river water using six small containers, which is then used for boiling, drinking, washing, and cooking. She waits for the water to sit “for a couple of hours until there is no turbidity before I consume it”. However the river water is still unsafe to consume and she regularly falls ill. Every month, Seung takes medications to ease her diarrhea, but drinks it with the same river water that caused her illness.
Duk Tom, 72-year-old woman, Kampong Chhnang Province
We had asked Duk if she had fallen ill recently, in which she recalls she had diarrhea and attributed this affliction to the food that she ate (water flowers and snails), and not the water that she’d drank, which at that time continued to be untreated river water. She readily shared with us her home-made remedy to treat diarrhea which involves holding her breath while picking seven leaves from a specific medicinal tree. These leaves are eaten whole or mixed with water before they are consumed.
To find out more about our efforts towards delivering clean water access, take a look at What We Do.
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.
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.
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.
This month, Lien AID celebrated World Water Day on a few occasions in Singapore and Cambodia.
Ahead of its official international date of March 22, we participated in a Singapore-wide World Water Day celebration organized by PUB on March 15, marking our second year of involvement.
Through the use of an interactive touchscreen display at our booth at the Marina Barrage, we were able to raise awareness of water issues faced by rural communities, and advocate the need to address their lack of access to clean drinking water.
On March 21, Lien AID representatives presented a ‘Lunch and Learn’ talk to HEINEKEN Asia Pacific employees in Singapore, highlighting water issues, our sustainable water projects in the region. Lien AID also co-facilitated an interesting hands-on activity. HEINEKEN Asia Pacific employees each got the chance to build a simple water purification device that demonstrated how dirty water is filtered through various stages (sand, gravel, active carbon etc) to obtain clean water.
Protecting water resources is one of the four focus areas of HEINEKEN Asia Pacific’s sustainability strategy, ‘Brewing a Better Future’. Their water efforts include reducing water consumption in their breweries, balancing water demand, and waste water management.
That same day, we also participated in World Water Day celebrations in the Kampong Speu province of Cambodia. As part of the festivities, government officials, commune councils, schools, NGOs and the community were present to partake in various activities.
These include speeches by government officials and commune councils on water management and the importance of drinking clean water, an entertaining comedy show by Charb Chein team and students on health and its relationship with safe drinking water, a gift presentation to students for a community water painting initiative, and exhibition booths managed by NGOs and the Provincial Department of Rural Development (PDRD).
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.
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.
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.
“I am very happy because from now on, everyone is able to drink treated water. When we bought the water from the Community Water Enterprise, we demonstrated to the children that this water is safe for drinking. We also told them that they should only drink water from these bottles from now on. The children do not like drinking the river water anyway, because it is smelly and still dirty.” – Ms Seung Khom, 39
Kampong Chhnang Province
The need for an affordable source of clean drinking water continues to plague poor rural communities in Cambodia. In some communities, clean drinking water is simply not available with no connectivity with water infrastructure. In many, commercially-produced bottled water remains too expensive.
In 2010, Lien AID has worked in close partnership with the Ministry of Rural Development in Cambodia to pilot the first community water enterprise in Chhnok Trou Commune, in the Kampong Chhnang Province. Three years later, this enterprise continues to be a thriving social business that is owned and run by the community, providing bottle water at a quarter of the commercial price, and conveniently within the commune as well as for the neighbouring floating villages.
While the pilot began within the floating villages of Kampong Chhnang Province, it was soon ascertained that communities that lived on floodplains as well as those on land were equally needing improved access to clean water.
Recently, Lien AID handed over a record twelve community water enterprises to the community, benefitting close to 30,000 people across 23 villages (including those on floodplains and on land) in the Kampong Chhnang and Siem Reap Provinces. Cambodian government officials and villagers were present at the milestone event.
“This achievement has significantly contributed into the government commitment as set in national policy and national rectangular strategy phase II to improve the well-being and living standard of the Cambodian people. In the name of the Ministry of Rural Development, I suggest commune councils continue to manage and maintain these plants to ensure its sustainable operations to meet the needs of the rural community and in the line of the Ministry of Rural Development’s objective under its slogan of Sustainable Rural Development.” – H.E. Tray Meng, Secretary of State, Ministry of Rural Development
The organisation continues to reach out to more communities to provide an improved and sustainable access to clean water in Cambodia, expanding its coverage to Kandal and Kg. Cham Provinces. Beyond Cambodia, it is also expanding the community water enterprises programme to Tra VInh Province in Vietnam.
To find out more about our programmes, take a look at Implement Sustainable Programmes.
It is not difficult to spot a tube-well while walking around the rural school compound in Kandal Province, Cambodia. They used to be the main source of drinking water but these tube-wells are now used by students and staff for other purposes such as watering plants and cleaning. Instead, students and staff ration what water they are able lug from home daily, to last through school.
Echoed across three rural schools in Kandal Province (Bu Yong Kbal Chroy, Hun Sen Set Tbo and AreyKhsat), poisonous arsenic-contaminated groundwater that is tapped on has rendered such tube-wells obsolete for drinking water. With a lack of water infrastructure to rely on, schools are unable to provide their staff and students with adequate clean drinking water.
When the school terms begins in September, the story changes for an estimated 1,268 beneficiaries.
Through a partnership between Lien AID, the Ministry of Rural Development Cambodia, the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports Cambodia, as well as the school authorities, these three schools are now equipped with rainwater harvesting and treatment systems of sufficient capacity to collect, store and treat rainwater enough for the school community.
Hand in hand, two arsenic awareness campaigns were carried out in March at each school to increase the awareness of arsenic poisoning amongst the school community.
This project is part of a pilot by Lien AID to improve access to clean water to rural schools with arsenic-contaminated water sources in Kandal Province, Cambodia.
To find out more about our current work in Cambodia, take a look at Where We Work – Cambodia.
A few months ago, most of the people living in several remote floating and flooded villages in Kampong Chhnang Province of Cambodia drank directly from the polluted Ton Le Sap, putting them at high risk of water-related illnesses such as diarrhoea. This is because the Ton Le Sap lake is heavily polluted with human and animal waste, sewage water, emissions from motorized boats, and industrial runoff, rendering it unsafe for direct consumption.
However, safe drinking water is difficult to access as it takes up to 45 minutes to travel from these villages to the nearest jetty. When available, commercially-bottled water is also too costly for these villages to afford. As a result, despite the health risks involved, these communities continued to drink directly from the polluted water source.
Due to the inaccessibility, these communities’ need for safe drinking water had been neglected, till now. In February 2013, Lien AID completed two community-based water treatment plants, providing affordable drinking water to the estimated 4,339 people living in these villages.
These community-based water treatment plants adopt a social enterprise model, where bottled water for the communities are kept affordable; less than half the price of those provided commercially. Profits generated are used to sustain the treatment plant’s operations and maintenance. These plants are also conveniently located within the community to reduce the effort for the villagers to transport drinking water home, making it easier for them to choose to do so.
To find out more about our work in Cambodia, take a look at Where We Work – Cambodia.
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