PHNOM PENH: The Phnom Penh Water Supply (PPWS) Authority has prepared to build a water pipe under the Tonle Sap River from Bak Kheng Water Treatment Plant to Phnom Penh, which is the first construction of its kind in the country.

PPWS Authority Director General Long Naro said that the construction team of the water treatment plant has now widened the water pipe with a diameter of 2 meters down to 30 meters, digging a tunnel across the bottom of the Tonle Sap to bring water from the treatment plant to distribute in Phnom Penh.

He added that tunneling activities were currently underway and people were being sent to close a dam to prevent water from seeping in from the river. A tunneling machine had been purchased from Germany to prepare the connection from the east bank of the river to the west.

"We hope that by mid-September 2022, drilling activities from the East Coast to the West Coast will begin," he said. "We hope that the program goes as planned and we hope to connect the water pipes from the west coast to all the pipes in Phnom Penh. ”

The construction of the first phase of the Bak Kheng water treatment plant has reached 66% completion and is scheduled to be completed in 2023. Meanwhile, 42% of the second phase of the plant has also been completed. Director General Long Naro has stated that after the construction of the Bak Kheng water treatment plant is completed, it will be able to process 390,000 cubic meters of clean water per day (the first phase will produce 195,000 cubic meters, and the second phase will produce an additional 195,000 cubic meters per day). This treatment plant will be able to meet the needs and consumption levels in Phnom Penh as a whole, and will likely be fully completed by the end of 2023 or 2024.