The FWUCs Sub-decree was approved on 12 March 2015. River Basin Management Sub-decree was approved on 10 July 2015. The other two sub-decrees relating to water quality and water licensing will be approved within the proposed loan closing date of 31 December 2015. Report on Institutional Arrangements for the Management of Water Resources in Cambodia' identifies no coordination issues between CNMC, TSA & MOWRAM. Previously, the CNMC and the TSA were quite separate organizations, but now they are chaired by the MOWRAM Minister and operate under the same control and budgeting process as MOWRAM. Coordination with RBCs is described in the recently approved RBM SD. The Chairman of the NRBMC is to issue a letter which clarifies coordination and cooperation mechanisms. Stung Sen river basin committee is informally formed and will soon be legalized following the recent approval of the RBM sub-decree. The committee in other basin, Stung Sen River Basin, is also established informally. The first meeting of SSRBC was held in December 2014. Traning plan has been adopted. 120 student, including 30% women, have been enrolled in four batchs starting from Sep 2011. The target of 100 students annually was over ambitious and was revised later on to 30 per year. Guidelines complete on the division of asset responsibility between the Government and FWUCs. Implementation of the guidelines to establish legal status of irrigation works and assigned rights has been demonstrated in the project provinces (as part of NWISP). (a) The report on Institutional Arrangements for the Management of Water Resources in Cambodia (including review of MOWRAM's organizational structure) was completed in February 2015. (b) The report describes clearly the demarcation of responsibilities within MOWRAM for water resource management and irrigation service delivery. The report concludes that separation of responsibilities for water resource management and irrigation service delivery is clear under the present arrangements department roles are well understood.' The report also makes recommendations for structures which would further strengthen separation. Comprehensive O&M plan completed in October 2014 and integrated with Policy and Implementation Manual (including Guidelines) for O&M of Irrigation schemes. Plan implementation commenced from early 2014 and resulted in an MEF approved budget for 2015 of $8.0 million for O&M in 131 irrigation schemes. Training to support PDWRAMs for implementation of O&M undertaken in Q1 2015. (a) Trainings delivered at provincial level in the project area (Battambang, Banteay Meancheay, Pursat and Kampong Thom) from 2012 to 2014 under Component C-Project loan. Trainings on O&M, budget preparation, accounting, climate change, CISIS, IWRM and gender issues conducted by CDTA. (b) TSC training courses were prepared in cooperation with FWUC Department. Training materials were updated to include new FWUC SD and new funding modality for FWUCs (referring to Guidelines for Sustainable FWUCs). construction works for all ten subprojects have been mostly complete, except one (progress was estimated at 70%). Two rounds of final inspections had been conducted by the EA between April and July 2015. The first round of inspection was made in eight subprojects while the second round of inspection was conducted in four subprojects at the request of the contractors. A list of defects and recommended corrections have been issued to the contractors for correction. 11 FWUCs have been established for the project. As for the continuing assistance to FWUCs established by the Northwest Irrigation and Stung Chinit projects, the initial operation budget for year 1 was released to 10 FWUCs in 2013 and for year 2 was released to 12 FWUCs in August 2014. Most expenses under the category were for office supplies, meetings of community members and advisory group, and minor/emergency repairs of the system. Whereas the on-demand technical support implementation involves funding of three training phases for capacity strengthening of FWUCs, service providers were procured by the FWUCs to conduct the training. By end of August 2015, the service providers have completed delivery of two training modules. The total number of participants on the completed modules was 384 including 31 women. Delivery of the second phase training is expected to start within the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2015. The third phase training is being formulated. 30% of beneficiaries to be women are likely achieved. |