Environmental Sanitation Cambodia (ESC) Cambodian non-profit, and non-governmental organization (NGO). ESC has a long-standing partnership with BORDA implement the BMZ-financed project "Decentralized Water and Sanitation Solutions for Small Towns in Cambodia and Laos" (2026–2028). Under Output 3, ESC is preparing a City-Wide Inclusive Sanitation (CWIS) plan for Senmonorom, Mondulkiri Province. The plan is expected to be endorsed by the municipality in the fourth quarter of 2026.

The problem this assignment addresses is the step from an endorsed plan to committed financing. Comparable planning documents in Cambodia have not converted into investment: a feasibility study and proposal for a faecal sludge treatment plant in Battambang, at an order of magnitude of USD 7 million, has been without a financier for four to five years, and other agencies are likewise seeking funding for treatment infrastructure. An endorsed plan that does not reach financing has limited value to the municipality and does not demonstrate the approach the project is intended to promote.

A working assumption of this assignment is that the most probable route to financing a municipal sanitation investment in Cambodia is not an international grant, but the public investment planning cycle — provincial and municipal investment plans, sub-national funds and the national capital budget — potentially in combination with loan-financed programmes and with grant or corporate co-financing for specific components. The assignment must therefore treat the public financing route as a work package in its own right and not as a secondary option.

A separate assignment (reference 2026/ESC-01) provides the independent technical review of the plan. This assignment does not review the plan’s technical content.