New international funds will allow Andong village to be linked up to city water mains

RESIDENTS of Dangkor district's Andong village are to  get access to clean water after the Association Internationale des Maires Francophones (AIMF) pledged €200,000 (US$261,161) to the Phnom Penh Municipality to upgrade the area's water mains, officials said last week.

The funds were pledged in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 26-27 during the 65th meeting of AIMF, an international body of French-speaking countries. Ten cities in seven countries were approved to receive money aimed at improving access to potable water.

Andong is home to some 6,000 families, most of whom were evicted from Tonle Bassac commune's Sambok Chab community in June 2006. Promised plots of land at the site in compensation, the community has lived without access to basic services for years.

Phnom Penh Deputy Governor Mann Chhoeun said AIMF had pledged the funds to extend clean water to Andong village, and that construction was slated to begin once the funds were received in October.

"Of Phnom Penh's eight districts, four districts in the city have 100 percent access to clean water and four districts on the outskirts have about 70 percent [access]," he said Sunday.