Water

Country Water Action: Cambodia
Irrigation Infrastructures for Improving Agricultural Production
(May 2006)

What do Cambodia's northwestern provinces of Pursat, Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, and Siem Reap have in common? Two things — they are poor, and they are getting out of poverty. The Northwest Irrigation Sector Project, with its appreciation of the role of policy and regulatory frameworks, will ensure improved agricultural production in the region.

The Northwest Irrigation Sector Project in Cambodia will reduce rural poverty by improving agricultural production among poorer farmers. The project, which began in 2003 and expected to be completed by 2010, is divided between 10-12 small to medium-scale subprojects in four provinces — Pursat, Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, and Siem Reap — where irrigation systems are being rehabilitated. These provinces are the poorest and most isolated in the country.

The farmers in these project areas will be organized into farmer water user associations and trained on sustainable operations and maintenance of the new irrigation schemes. The project will also train current agricultural extension workers and place a new group of irrigation extension personnel to help the farmers improve rice production, diversify crops, and integrate livestock and fisheries. It will also help establish rural credit to households.

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Until 1998, Northwest Cambodia was controlled by the Khmer Rouge, cutting it off from the aid and development work that was getting underway in other parts of the country. Cambodia remains one of the least developed countries in Asia, with 36% of the population in poverty, but its northwest provinces face a different hardship. They are among the poorest, with poverty exceeding 60% in some places.

Even though Cambodia is actually considered a water-wealthy country, its fortunate location on the Mekong River's lower basin does not exempt the country from a number of water problems that cut to the heart of people's struggle with poverty. The northwest is particularly sensitive to inconsistent rainfall, lengthy dry seasons, and sporadic spells of drought, even during the wet season — all wreaking havoc on the region's largely rural population, which is naturally dependent on agricultural livelihoods.

Water problems in the northwest provinces mean lower crop yields and inadequate water supplies to meet daily household needs. Only 1.25% of the rural population has access to safe drinking water and sanitation. Food security is also a problem, with scarcities lasting more than 6 months at times. Water, specifically for irrigation, has been identified as a way out of poverty for entire communities.

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The project has a holistic, integrative design composed of these three components:

• strengthening government institutions
• developing irrigation infrastructure and farmer groups to manage them
• providing irrigation farmers with better agricultural support services to maximize the benefits of the new irrigation systems

These components collectively reflect an important, proven logic in rural and agricultural development — that improving yields on a sustainable basis to reduce rural poverty requires more than an increase in irrigated land and water supplies. National decision makers and policy work must be involved.

While working on the ground to build infrastructure and farmer's capacities, the project is designed to work with a number of national and local government groups to develop policy and strategies for long-term, strategic investing in the water sector. The investment strategies are supported and guided by one of the project's main objectives of developing a regulatory framework, which will also ensure sustainable management of irrigation systems as well as the country's water resources. The framework also involves plans to transfer the irrigations systems to farmer water user associations, which are trained to manage the systems under the project.

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Cambodia's Northwest Irrigation Sector Project provides a great benchmark for rural water projects, as its project design considered the role of policy, strategic, and regulatory frameworks, which work to ensure the sustainable benefits of the new irrigation infrastructure and reduce rural poverty.

A 2005 quantitative study of ADB's water loans and grants, which analyzed the designs of ADB water projects against ADB water policy action items, rated the project's design as "exemplary" in its implementation of ADB's Water for All Policy.

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ADB Project Profile: Northwest Irrigation Sector Project in Cambodia