Assessment of the chemical quality of drinking water in Cambodia

Authors: Peter R. Feldman, Jan-Willem Rosenboom, Mao Saray, Peng Navuth,  Chea Samnang and Steven Iddings

ABSTRACT

Most water supply programmes in Cambodia have focused on providing access to
bacteriologically safe water, an approach which has led to an increasing reliance on ground
water, especially in rural areas. However, there have been very few data collected on the
chemical quality of the nation’s drinking water sources, and few water supply programmes have
the capacity to assess chemical quality. The study was designed to address this data gap by
conducting a low-cost, rapid assessment of drinking water sources nationwide to determine
whether there were any chemicals of concern in Cambodian water supply sources. Results of the
assessment confirm that there are several parameters of health and aesthetic concern; dissolved
arsenic is the most significant. Elevated arsenic levels (some exceeding 500mg l21) were detected
in aquifers of moderate depth in several highly populated areas, confirming that further
investigation of the occurrence of arsenic contamination in Cambodia is warranted. Other
chemicals of health concern include nitrate, nitrite, fluoride and manganese. Additionally, many
ground water sources are negatively impacted by parameters of aesthetic concern, such as iron,
manganese, hardness and total dissolved solids. Elevated levels of these parameters have caused
consumers to reject newly installed water supplies, often in favour of surface water sources that
are bacteriologically unsafe.

Cambodia_Arsenic_report (pdf)