Phnom Penh Water Story: Remarkable Transformation of an Urban Water Utility

By Asit K. Biswas, Pawan K. Sachdeva and Cecilia Tortajada

This book analyses how a water utility from a developing country, Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority, that was totally dysfunctional, corruption-ridden and literally bankrupt in 1993, became one of the most successful water utilities of the developing world in only about 15 years. By 2010, some of the performance indicators of this public sector utility were even better than London, Paris or Los Angeles. The book further analyses the enabling conditions that made this remarkable transformation possible. Based on this analysis, a framework is recommended for water utilities from developing countries so that they can also be transformed into functional, efficient, equitable and financially viable institutions on a sustainable basis.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Springer
• Release date: Dec 10, 2020
• ISBN: 9789813340657

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© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021

A. K. Biswas et al.Phnom Penh Water StoryWater Resources Development and Managementhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4065-7_1

1. About This Book

Asit K. Biswas¹  , Pawan K. Sachdeva²   and Cecilia Tortajada³  

(1)

University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

(2)

Water Management International Private Ltd., Singapore, Singapore

(3)

Institute of Water Policy, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

Asit K. Biswas (Corresponding author)

Email: [e-mail]

Pawan K. Sachdeva

Email: [e-mail]

Cecilia Tortajada

Email: [e-mail]

1.1 Book Outline

Phnom Penh is the capital city and is also the political and the economic centre of the Kingdom of Cambodia. Ravaged by internal conflicts and social and political turbulences for decades, Phnom Penh’s drinking water infrastructure, as well as the city’s overall management of all other services and infrastructure, were in shambles in 1993. Any sane person, resident or visitor to the city, in 1993, would have been utterly disappointed with the domestic water supply situations, both in terms of quantities available and their qualities. The water utility was non-functional, management was dismal, all water infrastructures were dilapidated and in urgent need of rehabilitation, technical capacity was non-existent and the utility was bankrupt for all practical purposes. Phnom Penh’s water supply system at that time was one of the very worst in any capital of any developing country. Fast forward to 2008, after this dismal situation, the city’s residents were receiving a continuous water supply of good quality that could be drunk straight from the tap without any health concerns. The water utility was profitable, financially sustainable, and management and technical capacities were vastly improved. In only one decade, Phnom Penh’s water utility improved from one of the worst in the developing world to be one of the very best.

This book is a comprehensive documentation and objective analysis of this remarkable transformation of the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA), the institution that has been responsible for providing drinking water supply services to the city, from an almost failed and bankrupt institution in 1993 to be one of the very few successful and financially viable water utility in any city of any developing country of the world.

In 1993, the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita for Cambodia was only USD 254 per year, that is, little over USD 20 per month. Given the abject economic conditions, widespread poverty, malfunctioning institutions, and social and political challenges of the early 1990s, PPWSA’s institutional transformation and its overall performance to provide all the inhabitants of Phnom Penh clean, reliable and continuous water supply is a beacon of inspiration and hope to other water utilities of the world, both in developing and developed countries. It is truly a remarkable and uplifting story, one that has not been told objectively and comprehensively ever before. This book provides a thorough and detailed analysis of the performance of PPWSA during the 1993–2017 period, and the enabling conditions that made this remarkable transformation possible.

The book also produces a framework for conducting a strategic and implementable analysis for any urban water utility of the developing world. The framework proposed divides the analysis of urban water utility into four distinct and interrelated domains of analysis. These are physical, operational, financial and institutional domains. PPWSA’s performance during the period of 1993–2017 has been analysed using this new proposed four-domain framework.

This book has two primary goals. The first goal is to share the PPWSA’s successful turnaround story in little more than one decade as an inspirational and aspirational achievement for urban water utilities of other developing country cities to follow and learn from. It can motivate other water utilities of the developing world that provision of 24 × 7 clean drinking water is not only possible but also can be done successfully in about a decade. The story is remarkable especially when one considers the social, economic and political challenges that prevailed in Cambodia during the time when its radical transformation in water supply services took place. The fact that PPWSA succeeded under such demanding conditions indicates that the urban water utilities of other developing countries can also flourish, provided they approach possible solutions to their problems systematically, logically and on a long-term