Floating toilets to clean up Cambodia's act

In terms of sanitation, Cambodia has a long way to go: people are still getting used to the idea of a modern latrine.

April 19, 2010
By Geoffrey Cain
Special to GlobalPost

KAMPONG LUONG, Cambodia — Residents of this “floating village,” a spine of stilted shacks and huts crammed atop a tributary of the Mekong River, depend on the water below them for cooking, bathing and gathering fish for meals.

Too bad they defecate in that water — a practice that helps make diarrhea one of the three leading causes of death in Cambodia for children under five.

The solution? Build a toilet that floats. And while we’re at it, construct a water treatment plant that also floats. At least that’s what one NGO, Singapore-based Lien Aid, says will finally clean up the water supply.

A typical river toilet is an open hole on wooden planks emptying directly into the river. By contrast, the Lien Aid toilet uses buckets to collect the waste, separating urine from feces, to reduce the bulk. Villagers then sprinkle soil, ash, or wood chips to dry the feces, decompose it, and keep out pathogens.

Villagers can even use their urine as a grass fertilizer. How efficient!

But, said Lien Aid head Sahari Ani, “we realized that it was equally important to ensure that the floating community gets access to clean drinking water.” So they began building the water treatment plant.

The floating plant, which is owned by the entire community, sucks in raw water from the river below, then filters it and cleanses it of microbes with ultraviolet radiation. Lien Aid and the government even gave the water its own brand name: Lotus Water, priced at 700 riel ($0.17) for 20 liters — half the price of what villagers paid before.

Given that everything else in the village floats, the projects make sense. The community has floating gas stations, police stations and even churches. Homes in river communities are typically built on floating platforms and are moved seasonally as water levels rise and fall.

Poor water quality and sanitation facilities have taken a toll on Cambodia. The country has one of the highest infant and under-5 mortality rates in the region, at 97 and 141 per 1,000 live births, UNICEF reported.

It is also one of the few countries in Asia that probably won’t meet its sanitation Millennium Development Goal, which calls for the country to halve the percentage of the population that lacks access to toilets by 2015, revealed a report by the World Health Organization.

Reading further, the situation appears more ominous. Almost one-third of Cambodians have access to proper toilets, the report added. In 2008 the World Bank said that nearly 10,000 people in Cambodia die each year from diarrhea and other diseases that arise from poor sanitation. In economic terms, that’s a loss of about $450 million a year, or the equivalent of 7.2 percent of the country’s GDP.

Cambodia isn’t the only country navigating these straits. In March, the WHO called for a worldwide overhaul of its sanitation strategy: now, the group said, the situation can be improved with a market-based approach that would spur innovation. That makes good timing for Lien Aid, which has been pioneering sanitation concepts.

The WHO also noted that many rural Cambodians aren’t exactly fond of modern toilets. Some see latrines as smelly and filthy, preferring to defecate in the wild because they think it’s more natural.

“It’s not a poverty issue. Some wealthy people in the countryside don’t have good sanitation, and some poor families do have it,” said Chea Samnang, director of rural healthcare for the Ministry of Rural Development. “It’s an issue of access to the right information.”

But NGOs and the government say they’ve been making progress educating locals, by using films and sending teachers. Now, it’s a matter of reinforcing that knowledge. “The villagers already understood the lack of fishes in the lake was caused by their poop,” said Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organization, a non-profit also based in Singapore.

The main problem, he added, is that “old habits take time to change.”

Recently, the group has been tinkering with its bucket design to improve one unforeseen flaw: that there were few viable spots to deposit feces elsewhere for more treatment. “We had to rethink our initial idea to set up a land-based site as there were practical issues of year-round access,” said Ani of Lien Aid.

To fix that problem, Ani’s organization (alongside Engineers Without Borders Australia) is exploring a new project to top off its gallery of floating contraptions: a floating “containment site” for feces and waste.

This year, Lien Aid is also encountering problems with its treatment plant — because the Mekong River has reached its lowest level in 50 years. Drought required the community to move the water intake pipe much closer to the riverbed. “This has resulted in the plant taking in raw water that has very high turbidity,” said Ani. He was referring to the cloudiness of water caused by solids, which is a common test for water quality.

“To accommodate this, the plant was moved several times and the quantity of alum [a chemical compound] to the sedimentation process was also increased to cope with the higher turbidity,” he added. “The higher turbidity has also resulted in a stronger earthy smell to the water.”

Lien Aid is still determining a price for the latrines. The NGO hopes costs can be kept to a minimum, with families possibly purchasing building material in bulk to keep down costs.

One-third of Cambodians live on less than $0.50 a day, according to government statistics, making cost a significant factor.

Villagers in Cambodia have already been learning how to construct cheaper latrines for as little as $15 each from the community-led total sanitation program, started in 2005 by UNICEF and Cambodia’s Ministry of Rural Development. If Cambodians transition in full force to the new latrines, that could be an impetus to take on the floating toilets.

Singaporean group introduces "floating" toilets in Cambodia

13 December 2008
By Channel NewsAsia's IndoChina correspondent Anasuya Sanyal (S'pore)

CAMBODIA: In rural Cambodia, only 16 per cent of residents have a proper toilet -- the lowest rate in Southeast Asia.

However, one Singaporean group is working to change that.

On Cambodia's great lake, Tonle Sap, water stretches for miles in every direction.

But getting clean drinking water and proper sanitation is another story entirely.

Homes here are floating platforms and must move seasonally, and outhouses are simply a wooden plank over the open water.

Water and sanitation issues are of crucial importance to people who are on Tonle Sap, where safe drinking water comes at a price and toilet facilities are rudimentary.

People have no choice but to contaminate the very same water they use for drinking and washing.

Singaporean non-governmental organisation Lien Aid aims to make a difference in this community of about 10,000 people.

They are introducing the concept of "floating" toilets which are affordable, locally-made, and therefore sustainable.

"It is actually a simple system… We're going to use locally available buckets where they can collect the faeces. We are going to use some locally available agent to dry the faeces, that is, using ashes and other local material," said the CEO of Lien Aid, Sahari Ani.

One key to the project is that locals will have to source and build their own toilets, to ensure that all parts of the community are involved.

"The toilet that we introduce to the community -- they are very happy to get that one and they try to find their own resources to contribute to the project," said the director of the Department of Rural Health Care, Ministry of Rural Development, Chea Samnang.

A young couple, who has two children with another on the way, says they are happy to have a simple and hygienic toilet.

They worry that people's lifelong habits will be difficult to change.

But they hope the affordable toilets will catch on with the lake's residents, just like other modern conveniences that have done so.

And it is testimonies like theirs that makes this project look set to be flush with success.

Water different world: from Kent to Cambodia

British Red Cross

"The main dangers from water here are diarrhoea and skin diseases" - Viey Savet (12) from Cambodia

The British Red Cross has been helping children in the UK understand how precious clean water is, by comparing their experiences with Cambodia where many children die from water-related disease.

Every 20 seconds worldwide, a child dies as a result of poor sanitation. That’s 1.5 million preventable deaths each year.

In Cambodia, the British Red Cross has helped more than 60,000 people to have cleaner water and sanitation over the past five years. Some 11 per cent of children in the rural province of Oddar Meanchey die before the age of five. The British Red Cross has been working in schools in the area to provide safe, clean water in the classroom.

To mark World Water Day (20 March 2008) the Red Cross asked schoolchildren from both the UK and Cambodia to write water diaries to compare their experiences of this vital resource.

In some parts of Cambodia, people live in floating villages because they have no land and so are surrounded daily by water, which is often undrinkable. Twelve-year-old Viey Savet, who goes to a floating school in Chong Khneas, kept a water diary: “All of our water comes from the lake,” he wrote. “I don’t know where other people get their water from. I think there is enough water all around the world. The main dangers with water here are getting diarrhoea and skin diseases.”

In contrast, Adam Bailey (12) from Southborough in Kent described what water means to him: “The most important use of water for me and my family is being able to drink it when we want to. We get our water from taps in the kitchen and bathroom. I think Cambodian children use water to drink, wash their clothes and themselves and water their crops.”

Gregory Rose, British Red Cross health adviser, said: “The most vulnerable in Cambodia are often children – in Oddar Meanchey, where the British Red Cross is working with schools to provide safe, clean water in classrooms, the statistics are shocking. Some 11 per cent of children in the region die before reaching the age of five, compared with 5.2 per cent in the capital, Phnom Penh. A key part of preventing child deaths is providing access to clean water and sanitation facilities.”

Since 2003 the British Red Cross in Cambodia has provided more than a thousand water filter units, 200 latrines and 50 hand-dug wells with pumps serving almost 2,000 people. More than 100 Red Cross volunteers also give hygiene promotion sessions to the most vulnerable people.

The British Red Cross also supports water and sanitation activities in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda.

S'pore NGO helps improve sanitary conditions in Cambodian village

14 August 2007
By Channel NewsAsia Indochina Correspondent Anasuya Sanyal

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia : Providing slum dwellers in Cambodia with proper sanitation - that was the task a Singapore Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) set out to do, to help improve the lives of poor villagers.

Residents of Andoung village, 15 kilometres outside of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, have been living without latrines or bathrooms for years.

They used plastic bags as makeshift toilet bowls, and discarded the human waste just outside the village, creating a squalid environment.

The women could bathe only under the cover of night to protect their modesty.

But Waterloo Station, an integrated hygiene complex, will begin to change the situation, providing clean and sanitary facilities for over 1,700 families in Andoung Village.

With the new facilities, the villagers will be able to bathe, go to the bathroom and wash their clothes.

Designed by experts from Singapore's Nanyang Technological University, Waterloo Station contains 11 toilets and 12 bathrooms.

Funds came from Singapore NGO Lien Aid, which focuses on addressing water and sanitation needs.

"The people can also help to look after the toilet facilities and the Waterloo Station facilities. We can get the community to be involved. They will bear part of the cost to maintain the facilities," said Ken Tan, Director, Lien Aid.

A 150-metre deep well and harvested rain will be the water sources for Waterloo Station.

A water stabilisation pond will break down and process human waste, before discharging them safely into the environment.

"This project is different because it's a partnership and we are working together. There are good relations among the local government, the municipality, the NGO, the Ministry of Rural Development and the local authorities," said Mann Chhoeurn, Vice Governor of Phnom Penh.

"I'm grateful to Lien Aid for building the facility. Previously, we didn't have toilets and we had to go wherever we could. The conditions were dirty and people fell ill," said one villager.

According to United Nations reports, 80 percent of all diseases in the developing world are caused by poor sanitation and unsafe drinking water.

Previous attempts to improve sanitation in poor Southeast Asian nations have had limited success, but NGOs are determined to change that by continuing to provide aid and expertise to needy communities.

Poor Sanitation Triggers Child Health Concerns

Nuch Sarita, VOA Khmer
Original report from Washington
07/05/2007

Poor sanitation affects 84 percent of rural Cambodians, leading to a high incidence of diarrhea and putting Cambodia low on the list of clean countries, UN health officials say.

Only 65 percent of people outside urban centers have access to safe water, the UN says.

Four out of five people in the agricultural country live outside the cities.

"Water and sanitation have been identified as one of the major causes of the high diarrhea incidence in Cambodia," Unicef Cambodia Project Officer Hilda Winarta said. "In particular, the sanitation situation is very poor. Cambodia has in fact been classified as one of the countries in the world with the lowest sanitation coverage in the rural areas."

Tan Try, a Unicef spokesman, said working with local communities to improve access to safe water and sanitation is one of the organization's Cambodian projects. Known as "Seth Koma" in Khmer, the project helps families with safe water use.

"We provided community hygiene classes to teach villagers how to safely use the water," Tan Try told VOA Khmer. For example, he said, "for some areas that do not have safe water, villagers need to boil water to drink."

One village recently built a new well, giving 10 families access to clean water. An information board nearby clearly explains hygiene. Over the past year, such projects have protected Cambodians from water-borne illnesses.

Unicef began preparations Monday for the International Year of Sanitation in 2008.

Lack of adequate sanitation triggers child health concerns in Cambodia

In rural Cambodia, less than 16 per cent of the population has access to improved sanitation. (Photo: UNICEF Cambodia/2007/Rintala)

Poor sanitation contributes to high diarrhoea incidence among children in Cambodia’s Svay Rieng Province. (Photo: UNICEF Cambodia/2007/Rintala)

By Guy Degan
UNICEF Cambodia

On 7 May, UNICEF hosts the first preparatory meeting for the International Year of Sanitation in 2008, declared by the UN General Assembly to address the global sanitation crisis. Here is a report on the situation in Cambodia.

SVAY RIENG PROVINCE, Cambodia, 4 May 2007 – Rice farmer Vorn Mao is looking forward to the rainy season to flood his family's dry and dusty rice paddies. But for him and his wife Roeung, water not only provides a livelihood. It also has been the cause of some anguish.

Together they look after seven grandchildren while the parents work in the capital, Phnom Penh. During a water shortage a little over a year ago, their five-year-old granddaughter Chenda died from drinking unsafe water.

The grandparents recall how Chenda had a high fever and diarrhoea, and died overnight at the district hospital. Her mother returned from Phnom Penh too late and did not see the girl before she died.

Low coverage in rural areas

UNICEF estimates that only 16 per cent of rural Cambodians have access to adequate sanitation and 65 per cent to safe water. In urban areas the situation is much better, but some 80 per cent of Cambodians still live in the countryside.

“Water and sanitation has been identified as one of the major causes of the high diarrhoea incidence in Cambodia,” says UNICEF Cambodia Project Officer Hilda Winarta. “In particular, the sanitation situation is very poor. Cambodia has in fact been classified as one of the countries in the world with the lowest sanitation coverage in the rural areas.”

Many rural households lack basic sanitation facilities, and awareness of good hygiene practices is limited. There is often no toilet nor any soap for washing hands at home or in school. Children are more likely than adults to touch unclean surfaces and are therefore particularly vulnerable to unhealthy environments.

Improved services and hygiene

Working with local communities to improve access to safe water and sanitation is one of the cornerstones of UNICEF Cambodia's child rights programme – known as ‘Seth Koma’ in the Khmer language. Providing local commune councils with technical assistance and expertise in water and sanitation is a major part of the project.

UNICEF’s aim is twofold: to encourage communities to allocate funding towards water and sanitation services, and to improve their hygiene practices.

At Phoum Thom village a recently built well is now providing 10 families with water for drinking, cooking and washing. An information board beside the well clearly explains what good hygiene is.

“Before, there was no clean water in the commune,” says Khorn Sa Ung, a local council member. “People fetched water from different sources – sometimes from the river, sometimes from the ponds in nearby pagodas – and this water is not clean.”

Water and sanitation access

At the nearby Thlork Primary School, water from a UNICEF-funded well not only provides safe water for drinking but also keeps the school's latrines clean and hygienic. Research indicates that schools with wells and latrines help to keep more children in primary schools, particularly girls.

As a young child, student Rina Phan, now 12, suffered from diarrhoea and typhoid as a result of drinking unsafe water at home. “I think it's important to have clean water, good personal hygiene and good health,” she says.

In the past year, UNICEF has implemented its Seth Koma project in six rural provinces. By improving water and sanitation access and hygiene, the project is helping Cambodians avert the preventable deaths of thousands of young children from diarrhoea and water-borne diseases.

Nearly one billion Asians without clean water

By Santosh Digal

The director of the Water and Sanitation Program of East Asia and the Pacific said this was due to a lack of coordination among government agencies as well as the absence of political will.

Manila (AsiaNews) – Close to one billion Asians have no access to basic sanitation like toilets and clean water, according to the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) of East Asia and the Pacific.

Brian Steven Smith, program director, raised this problem during a recently held workshop in Manila with media and government representatives from the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

According to the information presented, China ranks first on the list of countries plagued by hygiene and sanitation problems linked to water: more than 700 million Chinese do not have access to drinking water. In the Philippines, 23 million people – mostly coming from the south – are “hygienically disadvantaged”.

“Asia is the world’s fast-growing region economically but it is also the most backwards as regards availability of commodities to meet basic needs like health,” said Smith.

This is down to “a lack of political will and coordination among government agencies and also a lack of political will. Governments should realise this and act to prevent mortal epidemics like hepatitis or leprosy.”

What’s more, public awareness campaigns are urgently needed. “Around 11 million Cambodians do not realize the risks that the lack of basic sanitation and putrid water pose to their health.”