Utility growth: Revenues at PP Water up by 10pc

via Khmer NZ

Tuesday, 13 July 2010 15:00 Chun Sophal

REVENUES at the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority grew 10 percent to US$12 million for the first six months, compared with the same period last year, and officials say its customer base has been steadily increasing.

“We hope water-supply revenue will keep growing until the end of the year because customers have been increasing by a stable amount,” director general Ek Sonn Chan said yesterday.

Sales of water do not vary like most goods, he said, and this results in relatively constant revenue for the utility. Last year, PPWSA earned $21.6 million in revenues.

Presently supplying water to 196,500 customers, it expects to add an additional 12,000 to 13,000 customers during 2010, according to a report.

The authority is capable of producing 300,000 cubic metres of clean water per day, which is sold for an average price of $0.25 per cubic metre, the report said. It is powered primarily by two large water-pumping stations in Prek village and in Chroy Changvar commune.

Work on an $80 million water treatment station is slated to start later this year, Ek Sonn Chan has said previously, and is eexpected to produce another 130,000 cubic metres of water per day.

Funding for the planned Nirouth water treatment plant will be provided by a $40 million loan from Japan and $20 million from Agence Francaise de Developpement. The remainder will be self-financed by the authority.

The PPWSA plans to produce 430,000 cubic metres of water per day through a 2,300-kilometre pipe network by 2015, and targets 560,000 cubic metres per day by 2020.