Each water well & filter costs $250 and provides a family and its immediate neighbors with easily accessible hand pumped clean water. On an average, 11 people use each water well. Without it, these villagers, mostly women and children, would have to collect dirty water from stagnant pools or contaminated streams. At present, we work in Ampil Commune and surrounding areas. Ampil has 10 villages, with a total of 8,600 people. We have moved our water well construction to Bangkong Commune in the north east of Siem Reap, with a total of 8,500 people in 10 villages. We have provided over 1000 water wells to date, serving 11,000 people.

We provide ceramic water filters to purify the water, so fuel for boiling can be conserved. We organize hygiene and clean village workshops and instruct everyone, young and old, on importance of washing hands with soap and running water for which we advocate construction of Tippy Taps.

It takes one day each to dig a well and then pour the concrete. Digging the well employs three people. Each well has a signboard and this employs yet another person. The villagers are taught how to take care of their well.

Water Well Maintenance Program

The world is littered with broken water wells. We do not build water wells and leave. We have a comprehensive program which involves carefully selecting recipient families, compiling a family profile, identifying each well on GPS and implementing scheduled maintenance program. We inspect wells regularly and replace and fix worn and broken parts. We even repair broken wells that have been abandoned by other NGOs.