Cambodia is a tropical country with abundant rainfall during the wet season (May to October) and almost no rain in the dry season (November to April). In the countryside, families use water from wells for drinking, bathing and washing, as well as for animals and to irrigate crops. Unfortunately, during the Pol Pot years, most wells were destroyed. There are two primary uses for the water supply - clean drinking water and irrigation.
Drinking water: In areas with no safe wells, drinking water is taken from open ponds or rivers, which may be polluted with excreta or chemicals. Villagers, and most importantly children, often develop diarrhoea, and other serious infectious diseases.
Irrigation: Crops, especially rice, are grown during the wet season. However, it is so dry during the dry season that crops cannot be grown unless extra water is available. Families with wells are able to grow crops year-round. During the dry season they can grow "six-week" vegetables - including morning glory, peas, beans, lettuce, and tomatoes - greatly increasing food and income security.
Wells improve the health and income of Cambodian families by decreasing the incidence of diarrhoea and infection, decreasing infant mortality rates, increasing work productivity, and irrigating vegetable gardens.
Therefore, providing safe and reliable water is a vital part of the Tabitha Community Development programme. Tabitha gives 85% of the funds required for each new well; the families provide the balance via the savings programme.
Janne Ritskes, the founder and director of the Tabitha Foundation, calls having clean water "the gift of life."
Tabitha is currently providing 200 to 300 new water sources per month throughout Cambodia and wishes to increase this number as much as possible. In the year ended August 2013 we were able to install 2,843 new sources of water which directly impacted 6,766 families. Direct impact refers to the families as they must be able to earn an income from the water - but - families families in the community who do not have their own water source do have free access to the water for family use - uses like taking baths, washing clothes, water for cooking and cleaning.
The impact on our families is immense - their spendable income changes dramatically from less than 50 cents a day to an average of $6000 USD per year ($16.00 per day). How is this done? For families who have land suitable for growing rice: the change is from growing rice just once a year to growing rice year round. Families have an average of 2 hectares of land but the land if often broken into various plots of differing sizes. They now grow rice and vegetables at different stages - some plots are being harvested, other plots the produce is half grown and in others the it is beginning to be planted. The effect is amazing as our families are constantly harvesting and earning income every month from they are growing.
14,180 of our families began growing rice or vegetables year round this past program year.
We hope to install 3,433 new sources of water during the coming year.
Three types of wells are used in Cambodia. The type used depends on the type and quality of water available.
Family wells, which are split into two types:
Field Wells
Because the water table is less than 15 metres below the surface in many places, a pipe can be bored down which allows water to be pumped up (by hand or with a simple lawn mower-type gas engine) to the surface to irrigate the crops. One good field well can irrigate two hectares (just under five acres), which is enough for two families to cultivate.
Field Ponds
A field pond is roughly five by 10 metres, with a depth of five metres. For the pond to be viable, the ground needs to consist of heavy clay, which is not porous and will not allow the water to seep away. In fact, the field ponds constructed this way collect water from groundwater seepage, as well as rain, which help to compensate for water lost through evaporation. A field pond can help farmers store water from the wet season to use in more dry times for watering small areas of crops. Many families also stock fish in the pond as an added source of both food and income.
The families are asked to contribute towards the cost of wells and ponds; this ensures the families help themselves, which is the foundation of Tabitha's philosophy. The families are encouraged to save through the Tabitha savings programme. Tabitha is committed to providing the rest of the money through financial contributions.
If you have any questions about field wells and ponds, please contact [email protected]
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