The water supply in Cambodia was harmed not only by years of war but also by poor maintenance of the water distribution system. Billing procedures didn't keep up with the population growth, limiting the financial ability to improve and expand the system. Today, after years of focused attention, the water supply in Cambodia is clean and good.
The Southeast Asian nation of Cambodia has made remarkable progress in rebuilding a fresh water supply ravaged by 20 years of civil war. Today, Cambodia provides a model of swift, coordinated water supply development.
The water system that serves the capitol city of Phnom Penh saw its capacity deteriorate from 155,000 m3/day in the 1960s to 65,000 m3/day by 1993. Century-old pipes and a poor distribution network provided water to only one-quarter of the city's residents.
The Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA) faced many challenges in reversing this decline. Water workers were demoralized, underpaid, poorly trained, and corrupt. Only 13 percent of connections had meters, leading to inaccurate billing and widespread theft of water. Only 28 percent of water produced was actually sold, and the revenue collection rate did not even reach 50 percent. Illicit connections, often installed by water works employees at prices of $1,000 each, stole 72 percent of the city's water supply.
Ek Sonn Chan, a young engineer who assumed leadership of PPWSA in 1993, initiated a "culture of change" that began with the education and motivation of staff. Then Chan embarked on a five-point efficiency campaign that included
- streamlining the organization's workforce, giving more responsibility to upper management, promoting productive staff, paying higher salary and incentives, and inspiring loyalty and teamwork
- improving collection levels, first by installing meters for all connections, then computerizing billing, updating consumer databases, and then confronting the biggest nonpayers and cutting off their water if they refused to pay
- rehabilitating the whole distribution network and treatment plants; Chan hired locals instead of international consultants for the job, banking on their self-interest in doing it right. Existing pipes had to be located manually because all blueprints were destroyed during the civil war; communities were mobilized to report leaks, which were painstakingly repaired.
- minimizing illegal connections and unaccounted for water; vigilant inspection teams stopped illegal hookups and those with illegal connections were penalized, giving the public encouragement to report illegal connections.
- increasing water tariffs to cover maintenance and operating costs; Chan's plan included a 3-step increase in tariffs over seven years, although the 3rd rate hike proved unnecessary because revenues already covered the costs by then
The changes have been phenomenal. Water service now covers 100 percent of Phnom Penh's inner city and is being expanded to outlying areas, with priority given to urban poor communities. PPWSA now serves 15,000 families in 123 urban poor neighborhoods with subsidized tariffs and connection fees, free installation of connections, and more privileges. Non-revenue water losses have been cut from 72 to 8 percent. The bill collection rate is now 99.9 percent. Some 147,000 connections have grown from 26,881 in 1993.
PPWSA has proven that strong, visionary leadership; investment in employees; politically unpopular but economically essential tariff increases; and community involvement can produce a self-financing water authority that can serve the city's one million residents 24 hours a day, every day. It is a model of water supply development to other nations.
