The grant will help fund a project that will provide rural water supply and sanitation facilities to about 1,760 villages in five provinces around the Tonle Sap basin. It will also improve sanitation facilities for about 720,000 rural people, train communities to take responsibility for the facilities, and conduct health and hygiene awareness outreach.

The project will also help improve the Government’s facilitation, regulation, and planning of basic water and sanitation services.

The five provinces — Battambang, Kampong, Chhnang, Kampong Thom, Pursat, and Siem Reap — suffer insufficient water supply and sanitation coverage, a high incidence of poverty, and frequent water-borne diseases.

"The project will improve the quality of life and health of rural Cambodian people, who have suffered greatly from using water unfit for human consumption and from poor hygiene," says Alfredo Perdiguero, an ADB Project Economist.

"Improved water supply, sanitation, and hygiene practices are expected to enhance their health and, consequently, productivity. It will also reduce the time and effort they currently expend to obtain clean water, increasing the time available to them for income-generating activities."

While Cambodia has made some progress in providing water and sanitation services to its people, the country still has the lowest water and sanitation coverage in East Asia and one of the lowest in the world. Many still rely on groundwater abstraction, rainwater collection, or surface water for their water needs, while sanitation is almost non-existent.

These problems are compounded by poor sanitation awareness, with few people using latrines, clean water jars, boiled drinking water, or properly washed hands.

Partly because of these conditions, the country’s infant mortality rate is the second highest in Asia at 124 per 1,000 live births, and has even increased in the past decade. Many rural areas show high rates of waterborne and water-related diseases.

Providing access to water and sanitation is integral to the Government’s efforts to improve health and living conditions in Cambodia and meet the Millennium Development Goals in the country.

As defined in ADB’s strategy for Cambodia, the Tonle Sap basin is identified as the priority area where ADB interventions will be progressively focused. Water supply and sanitation coverage in the rural areas of most of the participating provinces around the Tonle Sap is lower than the national average.

ADB’s grant covers 75% of the project’s total estimated cost of $24 million. The Government and project beneficiaries will contribute the balance of $6 million.

The Ministry of Rural Development is the executing agency for the project, which is due for completion around December 2011.