Stung Sen project in Cambodia: OiEau's commitment to integrated water resource management

The Stung Sen project, supported by the Loire-Bretagne and Rhin-Meuse Water Agencies, was launched in 2012 in response to a request from the Cambodian Ministry of Water and Meteorology. In this project, OiEau is supporting the Tonle Sap Authority, which is responsible for managing water resources in the Tonle Sap basin, of which Stung Sen is a part.

OiEau plays an essential role in this project by providing technical support and expertise to build local capacity and support the implementation of integrated water resource management (IWRM). In partnership with the Loire-Bretagne and Rhin-Meuse Water Agencies, OiEau is actively involved in institutional and decentralised cooperation and in the logical articulation between these two levels, to promote sustainable water management in Cambodia.

Stung Sen, a pilot basin

The aim of the project is to implement integrated water resource management in the largest catchment area of the Tonle Sap, the Stung Sen. In particular, it aims to address the issues of access to drinking water in rural areas, the quantities of water needed for agriculture (particularly rice growing) in this basin, and the problems of flooding and drought.

The project was launched following the enactment of the 2007 Water Law aimed at introducing IWRM in Cambodia. It was designed as a pilot to assess implementation and identify any difficulties encountered, in order to assist the Ministry of Water in its approach.

The Stung Sen catchment area is mainly rural, with a high level of agricultural activity, particularly rice growing, but also the cultivation of sugar cane, bananas and cashew nuts. The total population of the provinces in the catchment area is 561,251, with a population density of 21.30 inhabitants/km² in Preah Vihear province and 73.41 inhabitants/km² in Kampong Thom province (National Institute of Statistics of Cambodia, 2019).

In 2015, after two years of meetings and discussions organised as part of the project with stakeholders in the field, the Stung Sen basin committee was formalised by the Cambodian authorities. Made up of 46% elected representatives, 43% government representatives and 11% users from the provinces of Preah Vihea and Kampong Thom, this committee identified the issues mentioned above. OiEau then supervised the work to design an action plan to plan how to address these issues.

Capacity building: OiEau's complementary expertise

As part of the implementation of institutional cooperation, OiEau is involved in capacity building through ongoing training and technical support on water governance and other specific subjects.

For example, OiEau has provided training for project stakeholders, covering subjects such as data management, metrology, water quality analysis, etc. These courses have been adapted to the specific needs of the project. These training courses were tailored to the specific needs of the stakeholders involved in water management and were organised in the field in Cambodia and also in France at the OiEau training centre in La Souterraine.

With the renewal of the River Basin Committee in 2022, the development of the Stung Sen Project is continuing. Work is underway to produce a book on feedback after ten years of project implementation, highlighting the successes and lessons learned along the way.

The experience of the Stung Sen basin has inspired other initiatives to implement IWRM in Cambodia, particularly in the Stung Sangker basin, where OiEau is supporting the local authorities in setting up a basin committee. This second IWRM project, due to start in June 2021, is part of the WAT4CAM programme supported by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD). In this project, OiEau proposes to transfer the knowledge acquired in the Stung Sen project and other IWRM initiatives in Cambodia to the relevant authorities, with the Stung Sangker basin as a pilot, which is more anthropised than the Stung Sen. More than a replication, this new pilot aims to improve the current IWRM model so that it is better adapted to the Cambodian context in order to facilitate its implementation by the relevant authorities and ensure its sustainability.