ADB approves $93.6m for Cambodia’s rural utilities

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved $93.6 million in loans and grants to enhance climate-resilient water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities in Cambodia.

The funding will benefit 88,000 households across 400 villages in 50 communes across nine provinces.

The Rural Water Supply, Sanitation, and Hygiene Improvement Sector Development Programme aims to provide universal access to safe water and basic hygiene in rural areas while improving sanitation facilities and addressing affordability.

The programme includes a $3 million grant from the Japan Fund for Prosperous and Resilient Asia and the Pacific and $600,000 in technical assistance from the Sanitation Financing Partnership Trust Fund.

In 2022, only 29 per cent of Cambodians had access to safely managed water, with rural areas at 20 per cent, and 37 per cent had access to safe sanitation nationally, dropping to 34 per cent in rural regions.

Approximately two million rural residents practiced open defecation, contributing to contamination and waterborne diseases.

ADB has supported Cambodia’s WASH services since 2005, benefiting over 1 million people, especially around the Tonle Sap Lake.