“Despite a growing tourism industry, Cambodia remains one of the poorest nations in Southeast Asia. And while average standards of living are rising, the benefits of progress are not enjoyed by everyone. Many people still live in extreme poverty, with no access to basic services like clean water
Providing access to clean water – and its associated public health benefits – is a strategic goal of the Cambodian government. One of Cambodia’s Millennium Development Goals is to increase the proportion of the urban population with access to safe water from 60% in 1998 to 80% by 2015, and to increase the corresponding proportion of the rural population from 24% in 1998 to 50% by 2015. The next milestone is to provide universal access (100%) to safe water for both urban and rural inhabitants by 2025.
Given its limited resources, the government needs strong private sector participation to invest in piped-water supply networks in order to meet these goals. Domestic private water operators (DP
