Increase water supply: Hun Sen

Photo by: SOVANN PHILONG
A water treatment plant in Phnom Penh's Chroy Changvar district.

The Phnom Penh Post
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/

Written by May Kunmakara
Monday, 04 May 2009

Tells officials to expand access during launch of new supply station.

PRIME Minister Hun Sen last week urged the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority to increase service to the outskirts of Phnom Penh, saying that the expansion of access to clean water would allow for the construction of new factories and would also benefit the poor.

"I recommend that [the authority] try to supply water to the remaining 10 percent of people who are left without it and to connect areas that lack water," he said last Monday at the launch of a new water supply station in Chroy Changvar district.

Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy Suy Sem said at the launch that data from 2008 indicated that 90 percent of Phnom Penh residents had access to clean water, compared with 51 percent of Cambodians living in all cities and provincial towns.

The new Chroy Changvar station is expected to double water production - from 65,000 cubic metres to 130,000 cubic metres per day - at the site, which already has one supply station.

Hun Sen praised the water authority for its efforts to reach out to the poor, citing its efforts to administer US$400,000 in water subsidies to 17,590 families since 2001. He said the authority should continue cooperating with development partners to bolster production capacity and services.

New station on the way
Hun Sen also said the recently announced Niroth Water Supply Project - funded in part by a loan that was secured in March - would be completed in 2013.

"I am not sure whether it will be finished before the National Assembly's mandate or after the 2013 election in July," he said. "I admire the [authority] and development partners for their help in making this possible."

Authority Director General Ek Sonn Chan said the Niroth project - to which the Japan International Cooperation Agency donated $35 million and the French development group AFD donated $20 million - would allow the site to serve some settlements on the outskirts of Phnom Penh as well as districts in Kandal province.