CAMBODIA – Stoeng village water filter Project

In Cambodia’s Siem Reap Province lies the village of Stoeng, a community of about 360 inhabitants. This is a very vulnerable community, still impacted in many ways by excesses and brutality of the PolPot regime. And like many villages in the area, the families in Stoeng have access only to water so poor that in some cases it even contains arsenic, leading to high rates of sickness.

Our funding for the village of Stoeng will result in the installation of a Biosand filter (BSF) into each of the 60 homes in the village. A BSF is an ingenious and remarkably simple device, roughly the size of a small household fridge, requires no spare parts and is incredibly simple to use. Dirty or contaminated water is poured into the top of the machine, where a layer of sand and bioagent purifies the water, which is then extracted from the base of the machine and used for drinking and cooking. Each BSF provides enough clean water for an entire family, and the simplicity of the device means that it will last for many years.

The results of our Project will mean that the village will experience a reduction in sickness caused by the dirty water, which in turn means less expenditure of medicines to combat such sickness. Children, usually the most likely members of a family to experience sickness, will be less affected and thus will spend more time at school. The installation of a BSF in each of the 60 homes in the village, will thus help to change the lives of some 360 people.