SEPTEMBER 27th: Sneung Borewell Update
We’re delighted to report that we have water!! Well, the Sneung community has water…at the third attempt. Problems with the drilling and hitting lots of sand delayed things a bit but now the engineers are connecting the pipes and completing the brick housing. Very soon we hope to see the people, especially the children, enjoying their water. Sincere thanks to the very generous single donor plus three others who between them covered the cost of the well.
For the background to this project, please scroll down.
THE BACKGROUND TO THIS PROJECT [6th September]
Following the Trustee visit to Cambodia in January 2023, many of you will know that Support Cambodia made a major decision to discontinue our Water Fund. This was because, post-Covid and the events of 2020, we were no longer able to visit regularly enough to ensure the effective maintenance and viability of infrastructure projects such as wells.
So, no more wells.
BUT WAIT….……sometimes a situation arises that simply can’t be ignored. In 2023 it was the truly dreadful conditions at Soun Ampou Primary School – remember that? This is what we did there:
Now, in 2024, the situation in the village of Sneung, midway between Battambang and Pailin, has been brought to our attention. Here are a few pictures of the village:
Sneung has around 80 residents, a basic kindergarten, caretaker’s house, a newly built communal hall and, 100m away, a church. There is no water here.…except in the raining season when the ubiquitous ’dirty pool’, similar to this one, fills up. And of course, it’s not clean.
An increasing number of children and young people either attend the kindergarten in the village or come to study English and the community meets on Sundays for activities. The lack of a year-round, clean water supply makes it almost impossible to promote good health, education and nutrition programmes.
Sneung is a tiny village……too small for any big NGO [non-governmental organisation] to bother with… and so the residents continue to miss out on the most basic requirement for life…CLEAN WATER.
Clearly, the answer is…A BOREWELL, rather like this one.
Something urgently needs to be done for Sneung…and Support Cambodia are going to do it…”greatest need “ and “absence of any other funding” being two of our basic principles.
A new borewell will be sunk with pipes to the house, the kindergarten, the hall and the church [though Support Cambodia are not paying for the church connection]. The cost to the charity will be $2,400 [£1700]. Work will begin immediately and the project will be under the direction of Father Carlos, Parish Priest of Sneung Village.
This will be the charity’s 15th well in Cambodia since 2016…… and possibly one of the most needed.
We have already received a very generous individual donation towards the cost but…..
If you would like to make a contribution, however small, to the cost of the Sneung borewell, please go to:
www.supportcambodia.org.uk/donate referencing your donation ‘BOREWELL’. Or you can write to us at 22, Regent Street, Wickmere, Norwich, NR11 7ND [cheques payable to ‘Support Cambodia’]
Thank you in advance for anything you’d like to give.