Bakheng Water Treatment Facility Construction Breaks Ground

Bakheng Water Treatment Facility Construction Breaks Ground

The groundbreaking ceremony of the water treatment facility in Bakheng, outskirt of Phnom Penh, takes place today, presided over by Prime Minister Hun Sen. The plant, designed and built by Vinci Construction Grands Projets, will have the capacity to supply drinking 195,000 cubic metres of drinking water daily once operational.

It will cost $190 million and is co-financed by the French Development Agency, European Investment Bank and the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority (PPWSA).

Initially, $155 million will be spent building essential infrastructure, including pipelines. In the second phase, the capacity of the facility will be doubled to 390,000 cubic metres daily at a cost of $45 million..

The facility will be built over 15 hectares of land, said Um Sotha, spokesman at the Ministry of Industry, Science, Technology, and Innovation. He added that the first phase will finish construction in late 2022 and the second phase will finish in 2023.

The Bakheng water treatment facility will be equipped with a two-metre diameter pipeline, which will be the biggest pipeline in the city, he said.

The water treatment plant will also be the biggest water treatment facility in the capital city and it will enable PPWSA to able to supply about 1 million cubic metres of water per day in the capital city, said Sotha.

Currently, four water treatment plants are supplying services in Phnom Penh, producing 650,000 cubic metres a day.