City’s Tap Water Gets Thumbs Up

City’s Tap Water Gets Thumbs Up

Khmer Times/Maddy Crowell Sunday, 03 April 2016 

Browse any online expat or tourist forum where people ask whether the tap water in Phnom Penh is safe to drink and you will likely find an adamant “No!” 

But according to water sanitation experts, these forums are wrong. Phnom Penh has some of the safest drinking water in the world, better than London or Tokyo – in theory.

“We can drink water directly from the tap. I already tested the water at the office; there is no e. coli in it,” said Ratana Chai, water quality testing trainer for Third World Service. “For me, I think it’s safe to drink the tap water in every household. The amount of chlorine will prevent recontamination in 48 hours.”

Water in Phnom Penh comes primarily from the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers, and is sourced at a water sanitation plant in Sangkat Srah Chak, which was established by the Phnom Penh Water Sanitation Authority (PPWSA) in 1993. 

Sim Sitha, director general of PPWSA told Khmer Times yesterday that city residents could thank the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the World Health Organization for their assistance in ensuring tap water was safe to drink. They helped develop the filtration system, Mr. Sitha said.  

“Drinking water in Phnom Penh is filtered and decontaminated with chlorine, checked daily by the PPWSA and examined annually by experts,” he explained.

This was not always the case. 

Ek Sonn Chan, former director of PPWSA, did not walk into an easy situation in 1993 when he started at PPWSA. Then, water across Phnom Penh was contaminated with bacteria, and the government did not have enough money to pay its electricity bill, let alone buy chlorine to purify drinking water. 

“The PPWSA was bureaucratic and full of incompetent staffers. I fired many staff and my friends told me that I would be assassinated,” Mr. Chan recalled in an interview with Puy Kea in 2007.

Within a year of taking the job, he implemented an improved system, introducing a meter and tariff system to households in 1994. Within 15 years, water production increased annually by 400 percent, with a customer base that grew by 650 percent. 

Cambodia’s water-filtration system has now been likened to developed cities in many Western countries. According to Mr. Chai, the water from the tap is safer than bottled water found on the streets. 

“People are wrong [to think] that they will get sick,” Mr. Chai said. “The water bottles pump water from the Mekong and then use a small machine from China to filter it. Most of the water they pump from the river is cheaper than the water the government sanitation plant provides.”

The only area Mr. Chai found contamination was near garment factories, he said.

“[Garment workers] use toxic liquids to change the color for clothes. They dump the wastewater out. 

“So it might be that some of the chemicals and metals contaminate the water system,” he explained. 

At Phnom Penh’s water sanitation plant water is filtered and decontaminated with lime, alum and chlorine, and checked routinely by the PPWSA. 

But the mainline pipes that connect to the filtration center only extend so far – most households have their own piping system, and contamination depends on their quality. 

“Phnom Penh has some of the best water in the world, comparable to major developed cities,” said Lindsay Denny, program manager at the Center for Global Safe WASH at Emory University. “However, the PPWSA does not take responsibility for the piping network or storage in households.” 

But while water in Phnom Penh is relatively safe, just slightly more than half of rural households have access to safe water, according to the Ministry of Rural Development.  

In 2014, PPWSA implemented safe water systems in 655 of Phnom Penh’s 909 villages. Last year, pipes were laid in 24 more villages. Plans to cover 22 more villages are underway this year.

The outlook for the rest of the country is improving, but ministry estimates put the number of rural people who lack access to safe water at about six million – about half of the rural population.  – Additional Reporting by Taing Vida.

A water treating station in Phnom Penh. Inset: Government officials install piping in a Phnom Penh home. Supplied