Beyond Exposure: Vulnerability, Adaptive Capacity, and Climate-Resilient WASH in Rural Cambodia

This paper examines the impacts of climate-related hazards on water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) access and practices in rural Cambodia using a Vulnerability–Exposure–Adaptive Capacity (VEAC) framework. Drawing on survey data with 423 households and 96 local authorities across five climate-vulnerable provinces in rural Cambodia, the study integrates household experiences with perspectives from village, commune, and district authorities responsible for local WASH planning and service delivery. The analysis distinguishes exposure to floods and droughts from underlying socio-economic and environmental vulnerabilities in WASH access and use, and from the social, economic, and geographic determinants shaping adaptive capacity. The findings show that while exposure to climate hazards is geographically patterned, similar levels of exposure do not produce uniform WASH outcomes. Flood impacts on hygiene, sanitation, and health are mediated by village environmental conditions and household economic status, while drought impacts and responses reflect broader locational factors alongside income insecurity and social marginalisation, including disability, older age, and female-headed households. Although awareness of climate risks and adaptative WASH options is relatively high, uptake of adaptation measures remains uneven. Adaptive capacity is constrained less by knowledge deficits than by structural and economic barriers, resulting in short-term coping rather than sustained adaptation. Overall, the study demonstrates that climate-related WASH vulnerability is shaped more by socio-economic vulnerability and mismatches in adaptive capacity across household and authority scales than by hazard exposure alone.