Support for the rehabilitation of Prey Nup’s polders
Context
Land issues are a sensitive subject in Cambodia due to traumas for historical reasons, low soil fertility, climate hazards and insecurity of land tenure. This, coupled with strong demographic growth, threatens the country’s food self-sufficiency. Rice growing takes up 90% of cultivated land, remains low performing and suffers from a cruel lack of technical know-how in terms of irrigation and water control.
The Prey Nup District polders are vast stretches of land taken from the sea thanks to dykes. Marguerite Duras described their construction in her famous novel “A dam against the Pacific”. The polders have, however, suffered serious damage. In 1997 almost one third of the area was no longer cultivated and water infrastructure had badly deteriorated. Salt water infiltrations from neighbouring mangroves have badly affected soil fertility, forcing some of the 50 000 inhabitants to resort to subsistence agriculture and causing extreme poverty.
Since 1997 Agence Française de Développement has been committed to long-term support for the rehabilitation of these polders. The innovative approach it has supported has meant that this project is one of AFD’s greatest successes.
Objectives
The issue is to guarantee food security by implementing an integrated approach which focuses on institutional capacity building and sustainable development.
- To rehabilitate hydraulic infrastructure, protect land and restore soil fertility;
- To increase yields and diversify production;
- To foster land tenure security by creating a polder land tenure plan;
- To allow access to credit in order to support the intensification and diversification of family farms;
- To empower stakeholders by transferring polder management to a “Polder Users’ Community” (PUC) with the capacity to sustainably manage infrastructure, maintain structures and collect water fees and thus guarantee the system’s sustainability and autonomy;
- To set up a maintenance and infrastructure renewal system through a maintenance fund financed by user fees.
Project description
The Prey Nup polder rehabilitation project began in 1997 with 3.35 million euros of financial support from AFD. Works were carried out by a Cambodian firm while the “development support” component, including works supervision, was awarded to the NGO group GRET and Handicap International. In 1999 AFD granted 3.6 million euros of additional financing to continue the project and extend it to a further 2 500 hectares. In 2002 3.8 million euros of financing were also granted in order to consolidate the progress achieved.
The project has a pilot aspect: it is the first time that the management of a large hydroagricultural area has been transferred to a users’ organization. The CUP has 1 500 democratically-elected members and is in charge of water management in irrigated areas and canal, structure and dyke maintenance. It also collects fees which guarantee project sustainability.
Impacts
Impacts measured in 2007:
- 89 km of dykes and 43 km of canals rehabilitated or built;
- 36 drainage and regulation structures built;
- Almost 10 500 hectares of paddy fields protected from mangrove salt water intrusion and cultivated areas increased by 3 000 hectares;
- A rise in average yields from 1.7 tons per hectare in 1997 to an average 2.7 tons per hectare;
- Rice production doubled: 1.5 million dollar annual rise in production value;
- 22 000 land titles allocated for a total of 24 000 plots;
- Microfinance granted to 5 849 people (for a total outstanding amount of 475 000 dollars).
Dates & budget
Start-up: 1997
Financing: Grants: 3.35 million euros in 1997, 3.6 million euros in 1999 and 3.8 million euros in 2002
Our videos
A player testifies
Yim Boy, President of the CUP
"Everyone pays for our dike's infrastructure maintenance"
"We are villagers, we help each other, everyone pays for our dike's infrastructure maintenance. Everyone participates. We conducted a survey before building. We asked villagers whether they would help pay for the dike's maintenance. They said yes. They were willing to pay for water use and dike infrastructure maintenance."
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GRET
Gret designs and implements projects in the field, conducts surveys, studies, evaluations, applied research and leads information and exchange networks. It also contributes to public policy design both in the North and the South. Gret is also a publisher specialized in development. This activity is one of its main tools for the capitalization and dissemination of knowledge and know-how which present an interest for development. >> Go to GRET's website
Handicap International
Handicap International is an international organisation specialised in the field of disability. Since its creation, the organisation has set up programmes in approximately 60 countries and intervened in many emergency situations. >> Go to the website