Care For H20 Care For Minority
1.1 Sanitation and Drinking Water in Cambodia
Did you know that less than 20% of the total population of Cambodia have access to safely managed drinking water and only 16% is safely managed in the rural area?
Figure 1
According to Figure 2 below, if compared to its neighboring countries, the percentage of population in Cambodia with access to adequate sanitation is the lowest. And within the country, less than 10% of the rural population has access to adequate sanitation compared to surprisingly 50% of the urban population that has access to improved sanitation.
Figure 2
Access to sanitation in urban areas includes connections to public sewers or household systems such as pit privies, pour-flush latrines, or septic tanks. Access to sanitation in rural areas includes use of pit privies and pour-flush latrines.
While there are many ways where households can access drinking water, it is concerning that people living in the rural areas are unaware of the contaminants from groundwater and those contain toxic chemicals that can not be seen by naked eyes. Some of the people have to travel long distances in order to get to a source of drinking water and still it is unknown whether the water is safely managed for drinking or not.
Figure 3
Main Purpose
The social problem that we are trying to address is how Cambodia can safeguard the standard quality of water and sanitation for minority groups living near construction sites in the Northeastern region of Cambodia. The fact that they are a minority group means that there are less connections established between the government and the communities. To some extent, the minority group does not have the basic rights and privileges to access health services, education and other opportunities especially the access to safe drinking water. Furthermore, the demographics of the population of the minority group means that their access to those basic services are denied most of the time. Also the lack of knowledge of how to take care of themselves such as basic hygiene hinder them to understand the concept of clean water and sanitation. Still most of the time, we can not really blame the lack of understanding and knowledge of the minority group, we have to consider the side of other stakeholders. For instance, the opportunity for the development and construction sites around the shelters of the minority group can also affect the well being of them to access quality and standard drinking water.
The intertwined relationship of this issue can not be achieved without breaking the final goal into sub goals and smaller intermediate outcomes we want to achieve. That is when the theory of change is useful for us!
Photo by author
Our final goal is to provide safely managed drinking water that is accessible to the population of minorities living near construction sites in the Northeastern parts of Cambodia. In order to achieve the final goal, we break the goals into sub goals and different sub- activities.
The three intermediate outcomes are
- Strengthens the relationship between the government and minority group
I. Government recognize the minority groups and allow access for basic services and rights
II. Government should work with the companies and corporations and plan a consent with the groups before starting a construction
III. Law firms enforce on the construction of new sites
2. Investments on the water quality systems monitor and other technologies to improve the standard water quality
I. Increase number of people with water filters and cleaning pills for the water
II. Install clean ground water systems, improved residual treatments and other disposal facilities
3). Educate and raise awareness of safety drinking sanitation for the minority groups
I. Volunteer groups working closely with the people
II. The minority group understands and learn how to use and obtain clean water
Our prototype
Therefore, we have come up with a prototype in order to address this issue and assist the minority group. Water contaminated with fuel or toxic chemicals in the northeastern part of Cambodia or areas near the construction site are unavoidable and still an emerging issue. We are not looking into the water contamination by bacterias because people can boil or use filters for safe drinking water, but chemical contamination requires more technical knowledge and attention. (On the right is our conceptual prototype)
How does the prototype work?
This sensor-like machine has two parts to it. First, the sensor will be connected to a device(such as a smartphone or a computer running device with the app. The app will enable us to read parameters that we are trying to get from the different water sources. While at the same time, the sensor that is put into the source of water will try to detect all the parameters useful to be displayed on the device. The parameters that we are trying to measure are pH of the water, the turbidity(NTU), conductivity, total dissolved solids(TDS)(mg/L), and total coliforms(CFU/100mL).
Uniqueness and Limitations to the Prototype
Our prototype has been made and is used in Cambodia, however, it has come to our attention that the existing water quality facilities and equipment in Cambodia are quite basic and lacking in terms of availability and accessibility. Cambodia is still a poor, developing country, and not everyone has access to clean drinking water and sanitation. There is better access to clean drinking in urban areas but there are many rural areas that haven’t gained access to it, especially the area of the minority groups that do not have good connectivity with the government. The government focuses on the development of clean water and sanitation in the urban area more than rural areas. Furthermore, the water quality sensor and facilities are quite basic and have limited capacity.
The water quality sensor that we are proposing is a small sensor that has the capability to read how much chemical from the construction site has polluted the water and whether the minority can drink it or not.
This equipment contains all the chemical sensors similar to that of the big sensor that is connected to the device and reads all the parameters and their measurements. We create it specifically targeting the minority, but they may have little to no knowledge about the water quality measurements and their meanings. Therefore, we need skilled interpreters to explain the usage of the tool to them. Also, we require large amounts of capital from the government and donors to create this technical equipment.
SE Canvas
The goal of CHCM is to seek for the better of the people in which everyone gets access to clean drinking water. First, we will start off by providing free service to the minority in the Northeastern part of Cambodia who are living close to the construction areas.
Cost
- Building the technical prototype (about 300 $ per device)
- Hiring expertise for the building (labor cost: 4000$ per month)
- Travelling to the remote areas for the testing (1000$),
- Renting fee (1000$)
The cost of the device is 500$ which comes with a 2 years warranty and lasts for 15 years before it requires a change in sensor head.
Thus, to be able to execute this project, we are partnering up with the Provincial Department of Development and request funding from the government to pay for the expenses. Also, since the Provincial Department of Development’s main focus is understanding the impact of the country’s development in the people’s area, it would be better to partner up with them to address the issue of reconstruction in the area that is affecting the water quality.
After the success of the prototype at the NE of Cambodia, we aim to expand the enterprise and reach out to more people who live close to the construction areas by creating more water testing sensors. In order to maintain the sustainability of the enterprise, we decide to broaden our target beneficiaries of the product to all the communities that are suffering and living near the construction site. What makes our product unique and affordable is the function and capabilities of the sensor as it is designed specifically for tested chemicals and substances from the construction industry. Another important aspect is that it is a community-based design which means that people can purchase one sensor and use it as a community which also reduces their expenses as well.
In order to help spread the success of our prototype and open up for more market places, we will use key channels such as government agencies such as the Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology who will spread information regarding the tool down to community leaders through meetings and documentation where it can be spread further on. We also will provide posters on social media and by hand with descriptions of the sensor, the success of the innovation and contact information for people to reach out for questions and purchasing. We are also hoping that the prototype will also be spread by the first minority group that we provide the prototype to test. When the testing becomes a success, the people in that community will talk about it in other communities and spread wider through the gossip. This talk can end up in a long loop that will reach the media who will write a news to spread it publicly in the media without us having to pay for them.
References:
- K.N, I., & Murphy, S. (2002). An Overview of Water Quality Issues in Cambodia. Chijournal.org. Retrieved 9 May 2021, from https://www.chijournal.org/Content/Files/R225-02.pdf.
- SDG 6 Clean water and sanitation | Open Development Cambodia (ODC). Open Development Cambodia (ODC). (2018). Retrieved 8 May 2021, from https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/topics/sdg-6-clean-water-and-sanitation/.
- Google photo: https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/ClpBl/1/ (first figure)
- Other images: Retrieved from googleimage.com
- https://content.instructables.com/ORIG/FGA/FHBF/JUINI2AW/FGAFHBFJUINI2AW.jpg?auto=webp&fit=bounds&frame=1&height=1024&width=1024&auto=webp&frame=1&height=300
