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57 out of 90 schools in the Siem Reap area do not have access to clean drinking water. This means that students who study at school all day are either not drinking water at all, or are buying bottled drinks which is contributing to the single-use plastic waste problem as recycling is not undertaken in Cambodia.
Project W – Water for Education is focused on providing safe drinking water to rural schools in Siem Reap province, Cambodia. The project will see 40,000 rural students and teachers, as well as 20,000 families living in these rural communities will finally have access to clean, safe drinking water.
In partnership with Rotary Club of Keilor East, Rotary Passport Club of Melbourne (RPM), Disaster Aid Australia and Cambodia Rural Students Trust NGO in Siem Reap (CRST), 4 schools have been selected to install Australian-made SkyHydrant filtration systems, with each system designed to last up to 10 years and can be locally maintained at nominal cost. At an average cost of $5,000 per school, the cost of providing clean water for every beneficiary is about $0.35 per year!
Implemented by the students of Cambodia Rural Students Trust (CRST), a non-government organization established in 2011, CRST has a reputation of bringing life changing programs to rural communities and Project W is on track to do the same. CRST is unique for a few key reasons - the NGO in Cambodia is managed exclusively by our university students, with daily mentoring by the NGO Founders in Melbourne – RPM members Jessica Palti and Aviv Palti.
By providing students with safe filtered drinking water, students will be able to refill their drink bottles and therefore create a sustainable impact on their health, education, and the environment.
