In Cambodia, Partners for Development has often been known as “angkaa teuk sa’at” (“the clean water organization”). In fact, clean water and sanitation have formed the thrust of PFD’s work there for more than a decade. Since 1992, PFD has worked in the isolated and underserved northeast of the country in order to improve the rural population’s access to safe water and sanitation.

Less than 30% of Cambodia’s rural population has access to safe water and less than 10% to adequate sanitation – these are among the lowest rates in the world. This situation, in turn, contributes to the high prevalence of water-related diseases, especially among the rural poor, and to the very high under-five mortality rate of 124.4 out of 1000 live births.

Seeking to increase access and to improve health outcomes, PFD’s water and sanitation efforts have operated simultaneously on three fronts:

1. demand-responsive rural infrastructure programs with high levels of community participation and ownership;
2. community awareness and behavior change activities focusing on water use and hygiene, including school health education activities targeting children;
3. capacity building at the local and national government levels, including support for the development of effective new national policies on rural water supply and sanitation and drinking water quality.

These water and sanitation efforts are also closely integrated with PFD’s activities in health, nutrition, and food security in order that outcomes are complementary and mutually reinforcing. Such integration helps to magnify the positive impacts of PFD’s work in improving the quality of life for vulnerable populations.

PFD believes in using technical approaches and innovations that meet local needs and which can be sustained over the long term. Low-cost community hand-pump wells, household water filters, and community-owned and managed piped-water systems are among the most successful of these. Over 160,000 rural residents have benefited from PFD’s rural water supply programs alone. PFD also has worked to improve sanitation in schools as well as the surrounding community – through supporting the construction of over two thousand latrines that in turn have served as models to increase demand for these services in rural communities.

PFD has also been a leader in surveying the quality of drinking water in rural Cambodia. Since the recent discovery of arsenic in Cambodia’s ground water, PFD has carried out thousands of chemical and bacteriological water quality tests to ensure the safety of water supplies. This contributes to the national effort to identify problem areas and to develop appropriate technical responses. Community education concerning the links between water quality and health has been an important part of these activities.

For more on PFD’s work in Cambodia, click here.