In one of the world’s great rivers, the Mekong River, the GEF Trust Fund is investing in the invisible: its groundwater. A new 15 million USD project, led by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), bringing the transboundary Cambodia - Mekong River Delta Aquifer in lower Mekong into the spotlight, was developed and is soon to be approved. 

Home to approximately 35 million people, the Cambodia – Mekong River Delta Aquifer faces a number of challenges, which threaten livelihoods and ecosystems, with severe socioeconomic implications. Over-extraction and reduced recharge lead to a rapid water table decline, which in turn exacerbates land surface subsidence, threatening water and food security in the region. In Cambodia, in Prey Veng farmers find their wells dried out at the end of the dry season, while the Siem Reap town - the fastest growing city fueled by the tourism industry heavily depended on water abstractions - sees their Angkor’s world heritage listed temples, which are built on sand layers, tremble when water saturation is low. Moreover, declining water levels are threatening the sustainability of groundwater dependent ecosystems, such as wetlands and forests of the Mekong Delta. 

Responding to the challenge and the request by the governments of Cambodia and Viet Nam, FAO developed the project “Enhancing sustainability of the Transboundary Cambodia - Mekong River Delta Aquifer” under GEF-7, aiming to strengthen the environmental sustainability and water security in the Lower Mekong Basin by focusing, for the first time, on improved governance and sustainable utilization of the Cambodia-Mekong River Delta Transboundary Aquifer. 

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