Touch Ten Sophea
Touch Ten Sophea
System Strengthening
Ms Chi Thavy recently became the Provincial Director responsible for rural development in Kandal province, Cambodia. She is keen to set an example to other provinces by reaching everyone in her province with water and sanitation services.
Championing Sustainable WASH WaterAid takes a sustainable approach to all our work. This is because we know infrastructure alone is not the key to universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH); education, collaboration and a shift in behaviour is needed. Strengthening the systems for WASH is about not only ensuring access, but working to ensure people everywhere have lasting access to clean water and sanitation. In the Kandal Province of Cambodia, WaterAid worked towards making it the first district to reach open defecation free (ODF) status. One key focus was to strengthen local WASH systems and governance, to ensure sustainable and equitable access to WASH, with a focus on promoting and engaging women’s leadership to accelerate the province-wide ODF target. Ms Chi Thavy recently became the Provincial Director responsible for rural development in Kandal province, Cambodia. She was keen to set an example to other provinces by reaching everyone in her province with water and sanitation services. As the only woman in her role in Cambodia she also wanted to set a precedent for effective, strong female leadership.
“I’ve realised my role is crucial to lead and facilitate. Kandal is committed to reach the target of everyone having a toilet by 2022.” WaterAid helped Thavy and her province create plans for reaching everyone and monitor their progress. WaterAid organised an exchange visit to take provincial and district leaders to learn from other districts who have been working on WASH for some time. After joining one of these visits Mr. Uch Saroeurn, the governor of Kandal Stoueng district, created a district committee to unite local leaders and community to achieve their sanitation goal. “It has been around six months since we engaged with the WaterAid program. We had no specific discussion platform, now we’ve set up a district WASH committee; this will help us to monitor the progress and discuss challenges.” Saroeurn said These projects that reach through various parts of communities from local leaders to government bodies are what ensured we were strengthening the systems for WASH to ensure people everywhere have lasting access to clean water and sanitation.
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