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Phnom Penh's War-Torn Water System Now Leads by Example
ADB Review [ December 2006 - January 2007 ]

By Ma. Christina Dueñas
Knowledge and Communications Coordinator for RSID's Cooperation Fund for the Water Sector

In 1993, the state of Phnom Penh's water supply system was prime evidence of the devastation that Cambodia's 20- year civil war and the Khmer Rouge rule had dealt the city. The water system, the capacity of which had shrunk by 40% between the 1960s and early 1990s, was in state of serious deterioration.

A CULTURE OF CHANGE Ek Sonn Chan, general director of the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, one of Asia's most efficient utilities, visited ADB while in Manila to accept the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service. He worked with ADB staff member Xiaoyan Ye (right) on the Phnom Penh Water Supply Project in the 1990s.

With century-old pipes and a poor distribution network, roughly only a quarter of the population received piped water. The Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA), the Government-owned water supply utility, was barely functioning. Employees were demoralized and underpaid. Only 13% of connections had water meters. Only 28% of the water produced for the system was actually sold, with the collection rate not even reaching 50%. Illegal connections were prolific. Even worse, the employees were responsible for much of the water theft. They were installing illegal connections at $1,000 per connection and receiving kickbacks from large consumers in exchange for lower meter readings.

The year 1993 marked the dramatic turnaround of PPWSA. With funding from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and through internal reforms, PPWSA transformed itself into an efficient, self-financed, autonomous organization. At the helm of the authority's "culture of change" was the young engineer Ek Sonn Chan.

In his "culture of change," Ek Sonn Chan did several things. He streamlined the utility's workforce by giving more responsibility to higher management, promoting promising staff, raising salaries and providing incentives, and fostering teamwork.

He improved collection levels, installing meters for all connections, computerizing the billing system, confronting prominent nonpayers, and cutting off water if they refused to pay.

He rehabilitated the whole distribution network and treatment plants by hiring locals instead of international consultants. As most of the blueprints for the pipe system were destroyed during Cambodia's civil war, he painstakingly searched for the pipes, and mobilized communities to report leaks. He minimized illegal connections and unaccounted-for water by forming inspection teams to search for illegal connections, penalizing water thieves, and giving incentives to the public to report illegal connections.

And he increased water tariffs to cover maintenance and operation costs, through a three-step increase in tariffs over 7 years, although the third step did not push through because revenues had reached sufficient levels.

Phnom Penh's water service now operates 24 hours a day, covers all of inner-city Phnom Penh, and is being expanded to surrounding districts, with priority being given to urban poor communities. In particular, PPWSA now serves 15,000 families in 123 urban poor communities, giving the poor extra privileges such as subsidized tariffs or connection fees, installment connection fees, and more. Nonrevenue water has also decreased from 72% to 8%, while bill collection is now at 99.9%.

Mr. Chan's efforts have been duly recognized. He received the 2006 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Government Service, the region's version of the Nobel Prize.

Looking back on his achievements, Mr. Chan says, "It doesn't matter whether water distribution is done by the private sector or a public agency, as long as these institutions are transparent, independent from political pressures, and accountable."

Order your copy of the DVD, "Water Voices," which features the story of Ek Sonn Chan and the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority.

Know more about Cambodia's Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA)

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