Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority
[1] The key to its success laid in "leadership, professionalism, integrity (and) commitment" as well as "community participation and information sharing (...), good governance, transparency and accountability".
[1] Significant financial support from external donors, initially through grants and then through soft loans, also was essential in making the turnaround possible.
The flow of the Mekong River during the dry season depends heavily on the Tonlé Sap Lake located about 100 km to the northwest of the city.
It is treated in three treatment plants: Phum Prek with a capacity of 150,000 m3/day, Cham Car Morn (20,000 m3/day) and Chruoy Chang War (150,000 m3/day).
[2] The Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority was officially established by King Norodom Sihanouk on March 24, 1960, under Royal Decree No.
[3] Though initially successful, PPWSA operations suffered under the country’s political turmoil of the 1960s, the Khmer Rouge’s ascension into power in the late 1970s and the ensuing two decades of conflict (for more details see Modern Cambodia).
The newly appointed General Director of the PPWSA, Ek Sonn Chan, began by firing corrupt and incompetent staff, apparently at great personal risk.
Then the utility began a campaign to convince customers that they had to pay their bills if they wanted quality service and slapped heavy fines on illegal connections.
[1] In 1996 PPWSA was established by decree as an autonomous public utility with its own separate finances, as opposed to being a department of the municipality as it had been the case previously.
[9] Its newly gained autonomy allowed the utility to retain any revenues in excess of operating costs to improve services.
[10] On July 1, 2012, the Ministry retired Ek Sonn Chan and replaced him by Sim Sitha, the director of the private water company that supplies the coastal tourist city Sihanoukville.
[11] Shortly afterwards Ek Sonn Chan was appointed Under-Secretary of State for Water at the Cambodian Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy.
The utility serves more than 27,000 families (14% of all customers) in more than 123 urban poor communities at subsidized tariffs and connection fees, which can be paid in installments.
For example, it provided incentives to members of the public who reported illegal connections and it has set up an effective system to register and resolve complaints.
This, together with the fight against small-scale corruption and improvements in service quality, helped to gain public acceptance for tariff increases.
[12] In 1996 the utility had proposed a three-step tariff increase over seven years to reach the government's policy goal of full cost recovery.
Tariffs in Phnom Penh are much lower than in some other Southeast Asian cities such as East Manila ($0.33/m3 in 2008), Kuala Lumpur ($0.45/m3 in 2007) or Jakarta ($0.70/m3 in 2005).
This can in part be explained by the proximity of Phnom Penh to the abundant water resource of the Mekong River, but mainly by the efficiency of the utility's operations.
[14] External cooperation played a major role in bringing about the turnaround of the Phnom Penh water utility.
Hun Sen, the current Prime Minister and strong man of Cambodia since 1985, and other senior officials in the Cambodian government have been accused by Global Witness and others of being involved in large-scale corruption.
Ek Son Chan, General Director of PPWSA, has thanked Prime Minister Hun Sen for his support in achieving the turnaround of the utility by calling on customers to pay their bills, approving tariff increases and not interfering in managerial decisions.
