Health Centre WASH (HC WASH)

Cambodia rates number 136 on the human development index one of the lowest ranking in South East Asia. Water and sanitation access is particularly low with infrastructure at health centers, schools and hospitals remains problematic.

Water is often sourced from surface waters and routine water boiling is not widely practiced. Ground water sources are sometimes contaminated with naturally occurring minerals exceeding national standards. In the wet season about 80% of rural households collect and use rain water for drinking and cooking and is regularly cited as the preferred drinking water source.

The provision of formalized rain water harvesting systems will complement the sanitation and hygiene infrastructure and behaviour change components of this HC WASH project.

Current status

This project focuses on 10 commune health centers but is part of a larger HC WASH project and WASH marketing project within the target area in Kg Speu Province. The HC WASH project, all health centres (31 in total) will be assessed for water, sanitation and hygiene needs.
The project concept has been discussed with the provincial health authorities in Kampong Speu Province and in principle, agreement has been established. Provincial authorities have expressed a keen interest to participate in the assessment, project development and implementation.
The comprehensive assessment will be undertaken in October 2009.
A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed with the provincial government.

The key component of this HC WASH project is to link with a new water and sanitation initiative to use market approaches to increase household ownership of water and sanitation products and services. These include low cost latrine components, low cost fixed handwashing stations, improved market access to point of use water treatment products such as ceramic water filters and formalized rainwater harvesting.

The goal is to enable the locals to have the skills and capacity to construct formalized rain water harvesting units and to promote its use among the community. Having these units installed in communal facilities like health centres serves a demonstration purpose apart from the tangible benefit of addressing the safe drinking water needs of vulnerable patients.

The goal of the project is to provide 10 health centres in Kampong Speu with a rainwater harvesting unit to ensure that the patients and staff at these centres wil have access to potable water. Also, to ensure sustainability of the project results by training 30 staff and community members on the operation and maintenance of the new facilities.

Goals

• 10 rainwater harvesting units (1 per health centre)
• Operation and maintenance training
• 90,000 outpatients with access to safe water every year
• every year for 20 years

Operation and maintenance training will be provided to 30 local staff and community members from 10 health centres. This will ensure that knowledge can be transferred to other members of the community.
The systems are field tested ferro-cement tanks designed to last over 20 years. We adopt a risk management approach to maximise quality and quantity of drinking water for direct use. A risk management approach in this case is a systematic process that identifies and manages risks associated with harvesting rainwater for drinking, for example ensuring materials used in the system do not impart chemicals or other undesirable effects to the water. The system includes sizing of the system based on usage, roof size and rainfall patterns; installation of guttering and down pipes; installation of a first flush diversion system to prevent contamination of water by diverting the first flow of water off the roof away from storage tank; animal and insect proofing on inlet and over flow, a manual bicycle pump to lift water to an overhead tank; a gravity feed distribution system; internal piping and taps to at least 2 points.