UN Water publishes new SDG 6 country acceleration studies : the case of Cambodia

The instance of Cambodia is one of the latest SDG 6 country acceleration studies that have been published by UN Water. Diplomat of Water Affairs Wed, September 5th, 2024, at 8:08

In 2022, a Global Acceleration Framework for Sustainable Development Goal 6 was introduced as part of the Decade of Action initiative that was initiated by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres with the intention of accelerating progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the year 2030. UN-Water had mentioned in its 2021 Sustainable Development Goal 6 Progress Report that in order for the world to fulfill all of the targets of SDG 6, it would be necessary for the world to boost its investments by a factor of four.

The Global Acceleration Framework is an initiative that aims to mobilize all stakeholders in the water and sanitation sectors, including governments, civil society, the private sector, and academic institutions, around action on five pillars that are interdependent and cross-cutting. These pillars are governance, data and information, financing, and the development of innovation capacities.

For this reason, as part of the Framework's second pillar, which is dedicated to data and information, UN-Water has issued country studies on an annual basis. These studies highlight instances of outstanding success on one or more of the targets and indicators of Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6).

The research was conducted in 2022 with a particular emphasis on Senegal, Pakistan, and Costa Rica. In 2023, papers were made available that were based on examples that were drawn from Brazil, Ghana, and Singapore. Since the 8th of July 2024, research on Cambodia, the Czech Republic, and Jordan has been published in various academic journals.

These studies are being conducted with the intention of investigating the success that these nations have achieved in making progress on one or more of the eight targets that are stated within the water and sanitation sector under Sustainable Development Goal 6.

The studies make an effort to determine the solutions that have been produced by each nation, as well as the procedures that are involved in the implementation of water and sanitation laws, and in doing so, they strive to throw light on how these possible accomplishments could be replicated in other countries.

For instance, what are some of the things that may be learned from the 2024 country acceleration study that was conducted on Cambodia?

The fact that Cambodia has been able to transform a state-owned water utility that was in trouble into a well-managed one, double the number of people who have access to sanitation in rural areas, attract private investment into the water sector, and make the connection to piped water and sanitation services appealing to the population, including in smaller cities and rural areas, are some of the most important lessons that can be learned from this experience. It was successful in eliminating the presence of open defecation in urban areas and is already making substantial headway in rural areas.

The Pnom Penh Water Supply Authority went from being in a position of virtual bankruptcy in 1993 to being a utility that was outperforming utilities in London or Los Angeles and was on track to accomplish Sustainable Development Goal 6 ahead of schedule. Both the utility's yearly water production and its distribution network expanded by a combined total of 557 percent during the course of a period of fifteen years.

Based on the findings of study conducted by Biswas and colleagues, UN Water highlights the fact that this achievement was accomplished with the assistance of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the French Development Agency (AFD), and other partners over an extended period of time.

There are a number of things that have been learned, some of which include the significance of leadership within the utility, the stability of chief executive tenure, and the significance of corporate culture. The reduction of non-revenue water, which refers to water that is generated but is lost before reaching the customer, the improvement of the availability of data and the quality of reporting, and the expansion in the number of connections to low-income communities are all examples of the actions that have been done, following the example of many other utilities. This was accomplished through a series of sequential steps, the first of which was the efficient repair of leaks and the subsequent updating of the client database.

In general terms. Among the eleven Sustainable Development Goal 6 indicators, Cambodia has made significant progress on six of them, and it has not regressed on any of these. For example, the percentage of the population that has access to drinking water that is safely managed increased by 13% by the year 2022 in comparison to the year 2000. Additionally, the degree of implementation of integrated water resources management (IWRM) increased from 46% in 2017 to 62% in 2023. Furthermore, between 2014 and 2021, there was a 400% increase in the amount of Official Development Assistance (ODA) that donor countries provided to Cambodia. This amount increased four times, from approximately 75 million USD to more than 300 million USD today. The research identifies a number of elements that have played a significant role in the accomplishment of these outcomes.

The first of these is the government's establishment and pursuit of goals that are both specific and specific in nature. Therefore, in the year 2010, the government established the objective of achieving a status of open defecation free by the year 2025 and achieving a coverage rate of one hundred percent for better water and sanitation in rural areas. A second element is the availability of data: in Cambodia, data on water contamination is available to everyone, including through a database of wells that is published online. This particular database is open to everyone.

Thirdly, the government is leading the charge in communications campaigns that portray piped water systems as being simpler and more cost-effective. Additionally, toilets are becoming something of a status symbol, which has led to an increase in the amount of money that households are investing in sanitation and hygiene.