Since the end of the Cambodian Civil War in 1998, the population of the Oddar Meanchey province has drastically increased despite the lack of adequate infrastructure, including basic amenities such as drinking-water supply. To improve the access to drinking water, governmental and aid agencies have focussed on drilling shallow boreholes. The use of groundwater for irrigation is also a growing concern to cope with the occasional late arrival of the rainy season or to produce food during the dry season. Since the groundwater resource in the province has not been documented, a 4-year study was undertaken (2011–2014), aiming to estimate the capability of groundwater to supply domestic needs and supplementary irrigation for rice production. Aquifer properties were estimated by combined use of hydrogeological techniques with the geophysical magnetic resonance sounding method. Groundwater storage and recharge were estimated based on new developments in the application of the geophysical method for quantifying specific yield. The median groundwater storage of the targeted sandstone aquifer is 173 mm, the recharge is diffuse and annually ranges from 10 to 70 mm, and the transmissivity is low to medium. Simulations of pumping indicate that the aquifer can easily supply 100 L of drinking water per capita daily, even considering the estimated population in 2030. However, the shallow aquifer can generally not deliver enough water to irrigate paddy fields of several hectares during a 2-month delay in the onset of the monsoon.

Lack of access to water is the primary constraint to development in rural areas of northwestern Cambodia. Communities lack water for both domestic and irrigation purposes. To provide access to drinking water, governmental and aid agencies have focused on drilling shallow boreholes but they have not had a clear understanding of groundwater potential. The goal of this study has been to improve hydrogeological knowledge of two districts in Oddar Meanchey Province by analyzing borehole lithologs and geophysical data sets. The comparison of 55 time-domain electromagnetic (TEM) soundings and lithologs, as well as 66 magnetic-resonance soundings (MRS) with TEM soundings, allows a better understanding of the links between geology, electrical resistivity and hydrogeological parameters such as the specific yield (Sy) derived from MRS. The main findings are that water inflow and Sy are more related to electrical resistivity and elevation than to the litholog description. Indeed, conductive media are associated with a null value of Sy, whereas resistive rocks at low elevation are always linked to strictly positive Sy. A new methodology was developed to create maps of groundwater reserves based on 612 TEM soundings and the observed relationship between resistivity and Sy. TEM soundings were inverted using a quasi-3D modeling approach called ‘spatially constrained inversion’. Such maps will, no doubt, be very useful for borehole siting and in the economic development of the province because they clearly distinguish areas of high groundwater-reserves potential from areas that lack reserves.