ADB tackles clean water access in Cambodia

The Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) board of directors recently approved more than $50 million in loans to help expand and improve urban water supply and sanitation services in four of Cambodia’s largest provincial cities. As part of the provincial water supply and sanitation project, the ADB will be administering a $10 million grant from the Japan Fund for the Joint Crediting Mechanism to help finance a new energy-efficient wastewater treatment plant in Battambang.

The bank will also administer a $43.54 million loan co-financed by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD). The cities that will benefit from the project are Battambang, Kampong Cham, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville, all important commercial, industrial and tourist centres in the country.

“As urbanisation in Cambodia continues at a rapid pace, there is a need to ensure that people have access to safe and reliable water supply and sanitation services to support their productivity and daily lives, and improve their urban environment,” said Michael White, urban development specialist at ADB’s Southeast Asia Department. Now only 42.2 percent of the urban population – excluding Phnom Penh – have access to a piped water supply, and while 80.2 percent have access to improved sanitation, only 10.7 percent have access to sewerage and wastewater treatment.

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