3rd Water Conference and Exhibition

3rd Water Conference and Exhibition

The 3rd Water Conference and Exhibition were organized based on the successful of the 1st and 2nd Water Conference and Exhibition in 2015 and 2017 respectively.  Cambodian Water Supply Association (CWA) in collaboration with Ministry of Industry and Handicraft (MIH) and other development partners organized the 3rd Cambodia Water Conference and Exhibition in 2019 which focus on  “Racing together to meet the 2025 challenge- 100% service coverage”

1. Aims:

“To bring together national and international stakeholders working in the water sector to discuss and share innovative ways and technologies to accelerate the access to clean water supply for all Cambodian people by 2030”

• Objectives:

The objectives of the 3^rd water conference and exhibition were:

• Engaging and building a better relationship with stakeholders on how to improve the water service sector in Cambodia.
• Strengthening networking and collaboration among stakeholders focus on marketing platform for water service sector business in Cambodia.
• Sharing business and technology innovation and practical experience in water sector.

Themes of the conference:

“Racing together to meet the 2025 challenge- 100% service coverage”

There are 1000 participants (279 females) within two days the participants are from Ministry of Industry and Handicraft, public and private water utilities, development partners, non-government organizations, community people, students, National companies, and international companies from Australia, Japan and China. See the annex 1 for the participants list.

Date and place: The conference toke place from October30- 31, 2019 at Tonle bassac II.

Delegates of the conference:

It was a great honor that His Excellency Oum Sotha, Secretary of States, Ministry of Industry and Handicraft, His excellency Angela Corcoran, Australian Ambassador in Cambodia, Dr. Paul Smith, International Manager, and Ohna Un Yuthy, CWA president provided keynote and opening speech during this occasion.

Ohna Un Yuthy thanked to the participants who presence in this special event and gave the rational of why this conference and exhibition was organized. He also mentioned that this was the great opportunity for key players who worked in water sectors to meet, shared and discuss how to improve water sector in Cambodia. This also the best time for private water operators who could see and learn the new technology to treat their water.

Dr. Paul Smith, International Manager at Australian Water Association, appreciated the partnership between CWA and AWA and highlighted that this was a great time while AWA led the delegation to attend CWA water conference and exhibition.

His Excellency Angela Corcoran, Australian Ambassador to Cambodia expressed the good collaboration between Cambodian and Australian government on water sector (pipe) since 2017 through investment in Infrastructure program (3i).  The show case on Water Utilities Improvement program (WUIP) between South East Water and Bekchan, Kampong Chamlong, and Krouchmar water utilities demonstrate new technologies to share modern management practices to Cambodia.

His Excellency Om Sotha, Secretary of State, Ministry of Industry and Handicraft mentioned the commitment from Government in order to reach 100% coverage pipe water supply in year 2025 by using another methods such as involvement private water operators in investing water sector,  to use the block tariff from 0-3 m3  for the poor family, to provide capacity building to private water operator in order to benefit on their investment. He also raised some challenges which Private water operators such as lack of financing, water source, technical aspect, pipe network destruction. He acknowledged the collaboration between MIH and CWA to organize this great event in order to share new knowledge and new learning in and technology to improve water sector in Cambodia.

Exhibition:

There are 19 booths were displayed from 21 supplied companies, 10 companies were national and 11 companies from international companies from Australia and Japan.  The exhibition was displayed in the grant ball room where participants had time to question and learn about the products which they interested to benefit to their water treatment plant. The products during the exhibition were pipes, electric devices and vending machine, water meters, mobile printing, pumping machine, water treatment tanks, micro-finance institute, water quality testing kits, small scale water treatment plant, etc.

Panel discussion: “How to support water operators to accelerate water supply service into their coverage areas?”

The panel discussion was divided into 3 parts: 1. The presentation about the research on ““A study of barriers and drivers toward to piped water connection” from East meets West. 2. The presentation about the history of the water utilities challenges and suggestions from 3 water operators ( Modulkiri, Pbeng Kpos, and Borhouy) and 3. the panel discussion.

Closing conference and exhibition

 Mr. Sok Samedy, Executive director thanked all support from Ministry of Industry and Handicraft (MIH) staff, the donors, national and international companies, private water operators, other non-governments staff, students and others relevant stake holder who participate in this water conference and exhibition.

The support from all relevant stakeholders were very crucial to CWA team to continue to organize such an event in the next 2 years.

At the end of the session His Excellency Soy Phyrum, Secretary of State, Ministry of Industry and Handicraft thanked for commitment from the team MIH and CWA which organize this event. His excellency also sends the message to private water operators to send improve water quality service, staff capacity building and to inform to the MIH if there were any challenges happened in their business.

Please click here to download the full report

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