PHNOM PENH, July 21 (FN) — More than 83 percent of Cambodia's urban residents have currently access to clean water, up from only 60.5 percent in 2012, Minister of Industry and Handicraft Cham Prasidh said on Thursday.

Speaking during the inauguration ceremony of a water treatment plant in northwestern Battambang province, the minister said some 550,000 urban households now made use of clean water, up from only 400,000 households in 2012.

"The Cambodian government has set a vision to enable all urban dwellers to have access to clean water with a reasonable price by 2025," he said.

He added that the Southeast Asian country produced 220 million cubic meters of clean water last year, up 11.8 percent year-on-year.

On the rural side, the country has supplied clean water to about 50 percent of rural areas by last year, according to a report of the Ministry of Rural Development.