China helps Cambodian villages address water shortages

Pipes for water improvement projects implemented by the Pilot Project of Poverty Reduction Cooperation in East Asia’s China-Cambodia Program sit in the Svay Ampear Commune government office’s yard. The commune administers the two Cambodian villages that are involved with the program, Chheuteal Phlos and Svay Ampear. [Photo provided by the Sichuan Poverty Alleviation and Immigration Bureau Project Center]

One of Cambodia’s major holidays, Khmer New Year, was originally supposed to be observed from April 13 to 16 this year, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in order to reduce crowds and flows of people. Employees of the businesses and government agencies in the country continued to work during this period, and so did the China-Cambodia Program’s water infrastructure improvement team under the Pilot Project of Poverty Reduction Cooperation in East Asia. Its members have been building a water supply management station, laying the foundation for a water tower, and laying pipes connecting homes in the two villages that are involved with the program to the water grid.

Early in the morning of April 13, the Chinese experts working with the China-Cambodia Program checked on the progress of the water improvement project. They visited the Svay Ampear Commune government office first. The commune administers Chheuteal Phlos and Svay Ampear, the two villages that the program is working with. All of the materials needed for the project have arrived and currently sit in the commune government office’s yard. The construction team were busy laying all of the pipes in the two villages before Cambodia’s rainy season begun in May. The period from July to September is usually the wettest time of the year in the country.

“If you leave in July, what will happen to the water project?” asked Ou Mao, deputy village head of Chheuteal Phlos, while looking at the construction materials.

“Please rest assured that we will not leave before the project is completed and you have safe drinking water,” replied Yuan Gang, leader of the Chinese expert team. “We will see every project through to completion.”

Impoverished Svay Ampear village resident Lim Saroeun’s cow walks around behind his home. The Pilot Project of Poverty Reduction Cooperation in East Asia’s China-Cambodia Program granted it to him on March 24, 2020. [Photo provided by the Sichuan Poverty Alleviation and Immigration Bureau Project Center]

The Chinese team later visited impoverished Svay Ampear village resident Lim Saroeun. Lim’s family participated in the China-Cambodia Program’s vegetable and chili potted cultivation project last year. They were also part of the first 10 beneficiaries of the cow distribution project this year and received a cow on March 24.

Lim happened to be helping a resident of a neighboring village build a house when the Chinese group arrived, so his wife received them. She showed them the land that her family’s cow lives on behind her home and also the animal that had been gaining weight.

Lim Saroeun’s chilies [Photo provided by the Sichuan Poverty Alleviation and Immigration Bureau Project Center]

Lim’s wife mentioned that the COVID-19 outbreak had reduced the need for temporary workers, which resulted in Lim not being able to find work for several days before he started on the house project. She also explained that it had been difficult for her family to sell the clams that they gathered at a river near their home during the pandemic, which is one of their usual sources of income, but that they are happy to have chilies and scallions to eat every day now that they have participated in the cultivation project for potted plants.

Lim’s wife told the experts that her family loves eating chilies and explained that she fetched water from the river every day during the dry season so that she could water the plants to ensure there will be enough of the fruit.

“It’s a pity that we can’t grow more plants during the dry season,” she said sadly while holding an empty pot. “We will plant more when the rainy season comes.”

The Chinese experts told her that progress was being made on the China-Cambodia Program’s water project and that she would have water to grow chilies and vegetables as well as safe tap water during the next dry season.

The Pilot Project of Poverty Reduction Cooperation in East Asia was launched on Dec. 7, 2016. It is jointly managed by the Ministry of Commerce's Agency for International Economic Cooperation and the International Poverty Reduction Center in China, and is the first official foreign aid project related to poverty reduction that China has funded.

China has implemented several village-level programs with the Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar thus far. China-Cambodia Program is executed by the Sichuan Poverty Alleviation and Immigration Bureau’s Project Center with the help of the Rural Economic Development Department of the Cambodia’s Ministry of Rural Development.