A Singapore-based impact investment network is to pump half a million dollars into clean piped water for Cambodia’s rural population.
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Nexus for Development, through its debt-financing arm The Pioneer Facility, signed a deal to provide a collateral-free loan for Khmer Water Supply Holding (KWSH), a social enterprise that delivers piped water to remote areas in Cambodia, where only 8.5 per cent of households are connected to a water system.
Nexus, which has worked for almost 10 years with entrepreneurs and investors in Asia and Africa, already met one-third of its US$6.5 million target, with US$1 million to be used for impact investment or funds that drive social and environmental change while generating financial returns.
The fund was raised through other investors like conservation organisations French Facility for Global Environment, the Lorinet Foundation, and Phitrust Asia.
Margarita Manzo, senior investment manager at Nexus, said while impact investing helps “fill the gaps impactful small medium enterprises face on the road to commercial sustainability”, Nexus also benefits from it as it earn from loans that reach US$500,000 which have 10 per cent interest over a period of three to five years.
The fund will be used to buy two additional piped water stations to provide water to about 12,500 households.
It will also construct water treatment plants, hire staff, purchase new water sources and install equipment such as pipelines to households.
KWSH has already connected over 13,000 households to piped water and has a long-term plan to provide clean water to over 60,000 households and 300,000 Cambodians.
Nexus has previously provided funding for other impact investment projects like solar-powered pumps in the Philippines, a water filters in Indonesia, and clean cook stoves in Laos.
