Cambodia - Public water works miracles

Some see the Phnom Penh water supply as a miracle. Eleven years ago, it was decrepit and still used 100-year-old pipes and pumping equipment. It served only a fifth of the population in the Cambodian capital city. Corruption and inefficiency were rife - so much that the water authority lacked enough cash to pay its electricity bills. Over 70 per cent of the water was lost due to illegal connections. But things have changed.

In 2004, things are different. This year, the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority – PPWSA - was awarded a prize by the Asian Development Bank for having one of the best water supply systems in Asia. More than 85 per cent of the one million plus people in Phnom Penh now have access to clean water. This rate is nearly 100 per cent in the city area, with lack of connections only in the outer suburban areas. Pipes and equipment have been renewed and meters have been installed at almost all connections. The Authority is making money. Loans are being repaid and the system is being extended.

And this is in one of the poorest countries on earth, racked by decades of conflict, where police and teachers are paid as little as US$20 per month and where workers are afflicted with few skills, massive unemployment and a chasm between rich and poor.

At the PPWSA, whilst there are fewer employees, they are better paid and trained than before. Anyone found to be involved in corrupt practices such as taking bribes for illegal connections has been dismissed. Corruption has been virtually eliminated.

His life was spared
Ek Sonn Chan is the general director of the PPWSA. Most of his family were killed or died during the Cambodian civil war and the time of the Khmer Rouge. He is reported as believing that his life was spared for a purpose. That purpose he has made the re-creation of a safe and efficient water supply for the Cambodian capital.

It is public officials like Ek Sonn Chan who have transformed the water supply to the city’s people. According to him, the water authority itself has autonomy and its managers have the power to make decisions without unnecessary bureaucracy. Salaries are still not high compared with other countries, but there is a high level of motivation.

In eleven years, the authority has added more than 750 kilometres of new mains pipes to the original 280 kilometres. It has repaired two pumping and treatment plants and added a third. It has ensured that the rich pay for the water they use by cutting off supply if necessary when bills aren’t paid. As a result, illegal connections have fallen and unaccounted water is now less than 20 per cent, down from more than 70 in 1993. Then, people felt lucky if their supply lasted more than ten hours a day. Now it is a full 24-hour service.

Safe at all times
There is, however, a price for the city's poor to pay. The tariff charged by the PPWSA is almost 50 US cents per cubic meter. This is still a lot less than poor people paid to private vendors for water delivery. And it comes from a tap at any time, and it is safe.

Diarrhoea deaths among Cambodia’s urban poor have been high, especially in infants under the age of five. Access to safe tap water reduces this risk. Studies done by the water authority show that, in a house, water has the lowest bacterial count close to the mains connection. If water is stored in tanks, the bacterial count increases over time.

Not for sale
A Japanese investment firm recently sought to acquire an interest in the Phnom Penh water authority. They were told it is not for sale. It will remain an autonomous public utility.

Strangely, the Asian Development Bank acknowledges the success of this public enterprise, but believes that such a model is not suited to larger cities. The prize it awarded is more than enough evidence of its attitude. But the Bank says that mega-cities need to have privatised water because it is hard to see governments taking on such large-scale problems.

Nevertheless, here is an example of a public authority, performing superbly in great adversity. As I finish my glass of fresh water from the Phnom Penh system, I reflect that good management, trained staff* and determination can create miracles in the public sector.

by Dain Bolwell, PSI

* Workers are not yet organised in this sector. In Cambodia, there are over 500 unions, most at enterprise level, affiliated to 15 federations, allied to or opposing the government. Public sector unionism is weak: only teachers and construction workers are, to a limited extent, unionised.