Water for sanitation and home-gardening of rural communities in Ramsar Stung Treng site

Access to water has reduced difficulties significantly among women and young people who used to fetch water from the river. Stored water was used not only for human consumption but also animal raising and vegetable growing in their home-gardens. Moreover, the project team observed a significant improvement in sanitation practices among the households.

Since 2012, with funding support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through WWF-Cambodia, CRDT has been implementing the “Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Use of Mekong Wetlands” project in 21 villages in Ramsar site. The overall objective of the project is to improve the conservation of Ramsar Stung Treng site by improving livelihoods of the communities there so that they can reduce their dependency on natural resource and in the meantime take part in conservation activities.

This year 2015, CRDT got a budget from WWF Cambodia to provide 25 rain water collectors to support 25 CBOs members in three villages (Hang Kosoun, Thmey and Koh Khorndin) in Sangkat Samaki, Stung Treng town, Stung Treng province for keeping rainwater and pumped water from the Mekong River. Each rainwater collector construction cost US$ 85 and each household contributed around US$ 20 for finding their own sand, stone and gravel. Besides, the households also involved in the construction work and learn how to install the ring wells and combine them together as a water tank.

Access to water has reduced difficulties significantly among women and young people who used to fetch water from the river. Stored water was used not only for human consumption but also animal raising and vegetable growing in their home-gardens. Moreover, the project team observed a significant improvement in sanitation practices among the households after they have had better access to water. Some households started to install toilet in their yard for convenient use.

Mrs. Sou Phom, 45 years old, from Hang Kosoun village said that “I am very happy when CRDT helped provide rainwater collector to my family. I used to spend 10,000-20,000 riels (US$ 2.5 to 5) to rent water pumping machine per one time per week. Now I can cut down a lot of expense for water especially in rainy season. I would like to thank CRDT, WWF and the donor BMZ for helping my family and our villagers with such a very useful infrastructure”

By Kheng Bunheng
Project Manager in Stung Treng Project Site