Posicionamiento Competitivo de México

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! 9.3 STRATEGIES AND NEEDS FOR GAINING

ACCESS TO PIPED WATER

There are three ways in which a poor community can gain access to piped water in Phnom Penh (Figure 20 / 1, 2, 3). Even though there are different partners that can help the communities and facilitate the discussions, achieving development calls for great activism also from the communities.

1. When planning to develop the community’s water supplies, the Community Chief and the Chief of the CDC approach a non-governmental organization. The NGO then contacts PPWSA, helps in practical planning and facilitates the discussion between the community and the authority.

This pattern of development has been used, for instance, in 101 Community and Dey Krahorm. These communities gained access to piped water connections in 2003 with the assistance and support of the Urban Resource Centre.

2. The community chiefs inform the Commune Council about their development plans

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are not sure that all the families will pay us back...” (Female in Kob Kong)

“All the dwellers in the community cannot afford piped water.” (Male in Kob Kong)

Unfortunately, there seems to be a low capacity in the PPWSA to help all the communities that need assistance in gaining access to piped water in Phnom Penh.

In order to make the consultations with the community and the authority effective, there still seems to be a need for an objective and skilful intermediary.

The rest of the development process depends on the community and its organizations. As a result, there are differences in how the dwellers decide to organize the connection within the community (Figure 20 / A, B1, B2). The strategy usually depends on the activity of the community organization, togetherness and trust in the community as well as the income level of the dwellers.

A. PPWSA takes the responsibility for the whole process up until the household connections.

The dwellers pay the fees directly to the authority.

This strategy is common in the communities, where the trust in the CDC and the Chief of the Community is not strong.

For example in Kob Kong, the trust and togetherness in the community can be affected by income changes and political disparities.

This strategy is more expensive for the dwellers but the lack of trust often makes it the only viable option.

B. PPWSA organizes a main connection for the community, and the dwellers take care of household distribution and fee collection.

This strategy is common in the communities that have a mutual understanding in the community and high trust in the development committees and the dwellers.

This process is cheaper for the dwellers, but needs more work from the community organizations in implementing and managing water use.

These communities are often supported by a NGO, which objectively facilitates and evaluates the implementation and management process.

As we can see, the role of the community organizations is crucial at the practical level of development work. The strong community organizations have been an asset for the poor communities to achieve development, such as piped water, cheaper and more efficiently. The Community Chief and the Chief of the Committee have often initiated these development plans and thus they also have a central role in the water supply development of the poor communities in Phnom Penh. Nevertheless, the success of these plans has also been directly or indirectly dependent on the water supply authority. Naturally, a major reason for the success of the projects has been the location of the community, i.e. if the community is located in an area, which is or will be served by the authority, besides a number of other infrastructure and financial issues. An important reason also seems to be the timing and the person that the dwellers approach in the PPWSA.

In addition, there are many traditional customs in the communities that influence the water supplies, their use and safety:

There are still families that use surface water but do not boil the water before drinking (e.g.

Prek Taroth). Many of the dwellers think that it is cheaper to occasionally take medicine than to boil water every day.

A majority of families store their water in traditional jars. Storing surface water before drinking improves water quality and reduces solid matters. In contrast, storing piped water in traditional jars, which is common behaviour in the communities, is questionable, since the stored water easily becomes contaminated with coliforms (Heinonen, 2005).

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The water storages and wells are not properly taken care of; the jars and wells are inadequately covered, animals use the same water jars, the jars and buckets are not cleaned regularly and the wells are not maintained in an appropriate way.

The reason behind the above-mentioned behaviour is not principally the lack of knowledge, but the lack of togetherness and motivation in the community. In all the communities the development committees are working on hygiene education. However, to be taken seriously and to be able to reach all the dwellers in the community, the committees need support. Very often the poorest households do not take part in the development discussions and also suffer most from water related illnesses. Furthermore, they are often excluded or they exclude themselves from the saving efforts which could help them cope with sudden income changes (Middleton and Tola, 2008).

Since the study communities are fairly heterogeneous, they need support in strengthening their feeling of togetherness. The communities also call for assistance in networking with other communities, and to be able to have prolific dialogues with other stakeholders, such as PPWSA.

Above all, the communities require a strong facilitator to help them to act as serious candidates for development work.

The local NGOs have helped the communities to discuss with the authorities. It seems that while the community organizations are not yet deemed reliable partners in the development discussions, the NGOs still play a crucial role in the development work on the grass root level.

They also offer significant support for the city to be able to fulfil its development targets - to provide safe water for all its citizens. In some cases, these organizations have even taken the responsibility of the state in providing wellbeing for the inhabitants, thus filling the voids of the state in providing basic services such as clean water for the inhabitants in spite of their social status.

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Lack of micro-credit Low education Low empowerment Decrease in access to

natural resources Conflicts Problem: Low rice yields

Landlessness

Decreasing fish catch per households Decreasing land area per hh

Infertile land

According to the PRA studies and expert interviews conducted by the author (Heinonen 2004; 2006), the definition of poverty by Baharoglu and Kessides (2004) also fits within the context of Tonle Sap Region. Poverty in the region can be characterized through five elements: income, health, empowerment, education and security (Figure 21). These elements are largely related to the livelihood opportunities of the inhabitants and thus have an influence, alone or together, on their ability to rise from the poverty trap (Heinonen, 2004; 2006).

As the studies show (Chapter 5), the most common livelihoods in the Tonle Sap Region - farming, 10.1 ELEMENTS CREATING POVERTY IN