CMEI-Community Mobilisation and Environment Improvement
The CMEI- Community Mobilisation and Environment Improvement project supported by the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT) and funded by Asian Development Bank (ADB) is being implemented across the vulnerable areas of Cambodia.
The agencies PADEK and WEDC have been awarded the project output: Community Mobilization and Environmental improvements (CMEI) under the project titled “Integrated Urban Environmental Management in Tonle Sap Basin”.
This is part of a larger mandate to help develop the Tonle Sap basin. This project has been designed to reduce the vulnerability of rural Cambodians, especially land-poor, landless and/or women-headed households. This will be achieved through investments in small-scale mitigation measures including water management infrastructures, technical assistance to resilient agricultural practices, and capacity building support, especially targeting poor women. Importantly, these services will be delivered by sub-national administrations (communes, districts and provinces) with a view to strengthen their overall capacity to plan, design and deliver public services for resilience building. The project will therefore improve sub-national administration systems affecting investments in rural livelihoods through climate sensitive planning, budgeting and execution.
The Project looks at the interconnections between infrastructure developments, urban management, water and climate change in Tonle Sap Region specifically in the two provinces of Pursat and Kampong Chhnang in Cambodia.
Geography: Tonle Sap Lake (Pursat and Kampong Chhanng Province)
The Tonle Sap Lake Area forms a critically important economic, social and environmental. Given the dominance of agriculture and the already heavy pressure on the area’s natural resources. At the same time, the livelihood structure of the Tonle Sap area is diversifying, with increasing amount of people transferring from traditional, agriculture–‐based livelihoods to more modern sources of income, and the provincial capitals –Siem Reap and Phnom Penh in particular– attracting more and more migrants from the rural areas. The Tonle Sap area is, however, developing unevenly, and great differences are visible both between different provinces as well as between urban and rural areas. Worryingly, the disparities between the rural and urban areas are increasing in many fronts (e.g. education), suggesting possibility for social and political tensions.
The analysis of the hydrological impacts of climate change indicate that climate change is likely to bring remarkable changes to the Tonle Sap, with most remarkable impacts being felt in the longer term. Also the ecology and natural resources of the area is likely to change in the future, as the lake floodplain system is predicted to feel increasing negative impacts due to human interactions, in particular through intensive hydropower development in the upper parts of the Mekong River Basin. In fact, the Tonle Sap Lake area can be considered as the most vulnerable area to the changes caused by the current hydropower development plans in the Mekong. At the same time, the climate change is estimated to cause new kinds of changes to the lake floodplain system. Consequently, the area’s future includes many uncertainties, and will depend on both external driving forces –including changes in
the Tonle Sap’s hydrology and related impacts to fisheries and agriculture– as well as on internal changes in the socio‐economic setting of the area.
In the Inception phase (3 months), the project has focused primarily on the human aspects of the project implementation with focus on the hydrological impacts of climate change as well as related adaptation strategies in the Tonle Sap area of Cambodia. The project can be seen as a kind of scoping study that aimed to analyse some of the main issues related to climate change adaptation in these two areas as well as to recognise possibilities for future research and action.
The project aims to address the climate change and environmental needs of the urban poor and vulnerable, including ethnic Cham and Vietnamese in Kampong Chhnang and Pursat—making the project more inclusive by extending benefits from large infrastructure investments.
It includes improved household sanitation for IDPoor 1 and 2 in the current municipality area; climate change and hygiene awareness and action; and community small-scale infrastructure improvements in pre-identified poor and vulnerable areas in each municipality. Small-scale infrastructure improvements will be prioritized by the communities and will be financed by the project, national government, and community. The output will help extend project benefits to the poor and vulnerable groups.
The output includes the following sub-outputs and activities:
Household sanitation grants for ID Poor 1 and IDPoor 2 households within the defined municipality area).
Information, Education and Communication (IEC) activities to promote project awareness, hygiene awareness, initiate behavioural change and disseminate climate change information to men and women. The project area for the IEC efforts will include sangkats in the existing municipal boundary and adjacent urban Sangkats. It will generate information and opportunities for knowledge management to further strengthen the knowledge management aspects of the project; and,
Small-scale infrastructure improvements in sangkats that are pre-identified by the project survey as being poor and vulnerable to poor urban environmental conditions (e.g., community sanitation, improved drainage with access roads, or community collection points for solid waste management). These components will connect directly with Output 1 and 2 investments to ensure that local communities are also direct beneficiaries. Communities residing in the urban sangkats of the existing municipal boundary area will be eligible for assistance.
Key benchmarks for project implementation
Address the climate change and environmental needs of the urban poor and vulnerable, including ethnic Cham and Vietnamese in Kampong Chhnang and Pursat.
Making the project more inclusive by extending benefits from large infrastructure investments.
Improved household sanitation for ID Poor 1 and 2 in the current targeted municipality areas; climate change and hygiene awareness and actions;
Small-scale infrastructure improvements prioritized by the communities and financed by the project, national government, and community.
Help extend project benefits to the poor and vulnerable group by the end of project period.
We have started our journey of collective change and we are working with people to finalise action plans to combat Climate Change and be prepared for the next disasters
Team Leader – Community Mobilization and Environmental Improvements (CMEI)
Integrated Urban Environmental Management in the Tonle Sap Basin
Project of Asian Development Bank and Ministry of Public Works and Transport- Royal Government of Cambodia
Implemented by PADEK in partnership with WEDC
Address: Ministry of Public Works and Transport, Street 598, Sangkat Chrang Chomres 2, Khan Resey Keo, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
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