The Singapore International Foundation yesterday announced that more than 70,000 villagers will have access to clean drinking water when the second phase of its project closes in 2021.
The SIF’s Water for Life programme was first launched in 2010 in Siem Reap province’s Sout Nikum and Prasat Bakong districts.
By 2014, more than 460 Singapore International Volunteers had installed 2,600 bio-sand filters, which benefited 17,000 villagers.
This led to an 85 percent drop in the incidence of water-borne diseases.
From 2014 to 2017, volunteers in 12 communes in Kampong Speu installed 1,700 bio-filters, providing safe and accessible drinking water to 44,000 villagers.
By 2021, SIF estimates that more than 70,000 Cambodia villagers will have access to clean drinking water.
SIF’s announcement yesterday coincided with a visit to its project by Singapore’s Minister of Communications and Information Yaacob Ibrahim.
The country also has one of the highest infant mortality rates in Asia, and most of these premature deaths could be attributed to water-borne disease such as diarrhoea, hepatitis A and typhoid.
“Studies have shown that bio-sand water filters effectively remove more than 90 percent of harmful bacteria and 100 percent of parasites” it said.
SIF’s Water for life programme augments the government’s national strategy for rural water supply, sanitation and hygiene, which aims to provide every person in a rural community with access to safe water and sanitation by 2025.