Clean Water

The Problem - The need for clean water in Cambodia

One of the most pressing resource issues facing rural villagers in Cambodia is a lack of clean drinking water. Currently, villagers and residents in remote areas drink from pools of standing water or from streams and canals. In both cases, the water is contaminated with bacteria and polluted with waste. Sickness from dirty water impacts on the lives of the already poor by preventing adults from working and children from attending school and in extreme cases leading to terminal illness. JWOC has sought to address this problem and since starting the Clean Water Project in 2006 has installed over 300 wells in the Siem Reap area.

What JWOC is doing

JWOC identifies and works with whole communities to make sure that every person and every household has access to plentiful supplies of clean, safe water. Once a partner village has been identified, an eight month process of collaboration begins where JWOC will provide new wells, repairs, support to villagers in the maintenance of their wells, water filters, educational hygiene seminars and water testing. JWOC also conducts numerous surveys to assess the impact of our programme as well as to constantly learn and improve our Project. The communities also play their part by guaranteeing attendance at seminars and helping JWOC gather information about the situation of health and water in the village. JWOC also requests that each household makes a small financial contribution to ensure each beneficiary feels ownership over the material support they receive and will be willing to look after their new water source.

To learn more about these stages that we implement with partner villages please click here.

With this comprehensive solution JWOC strives to not just provide clean water, but to make that gift a sustainable change in lifestyle and health.

How You Can Help

Despite the success of the Clean Water Project, JWOC has expanded its Clean Water project in recognition of our responsibility to the communities we serve and the goal of sustainability, which runs through all our projects. There are countless communities in Siem Reap alone where access to clean, safe water remains a distant possibility and there are many ways you can get involved in helping us help:

Well Maintenance:	$20 - $150
Fixing a broken well can be very inexpoensive so every contribution counts. Even a small donation to our well maintenance fund can resurrect a well and give villagers back their right to clean water.
Water Filters:	$130
Give 10 houses a sustainable way of getting safe drinking water.
Educational Seminars and hygiene packs:	$200 (Recommended donation)
JWOC will typically run 6-12 seminars in each village but the number of participants depends on the population of the village.
Water Testing:	$250
Test 20 wells giving hundreds of people the knowledge and security of having safe water.
New wells:	$350 (or $375 with a recognition sign).
Give up to five families the gift of water.
Sponsor a village:	$7,600*
Give JWOC the resources to help an entire village. Approximate cost given the different size and population of every Cambodian village.*