In rural Cambodia, a large part of the population remains unserved by water and
sanitation services. Of increasing concern recently are the high-levels of arsenic
that have been detected in some of the existing wells across the country.
To address this issue, the government has taken several steps, one of the most
critical being the formulation of a national policy on water supply and sanitation
which was approved in 2003 and which covers issues such as private sector, participation,
financial sustainability, protection of the poor, decentralization and regulation.
The challenge remains to operationalise these policies. In view of the task
at hand, the government allows and encourages private service providers to participate
in the sector, even though the legal and regulatory frameworks are not yet adequately
developed. Some are very small, and informal, but some are on a large scale,
and operate under a license from the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy
(MIME).
