Sanitation given a big push in rural Cambodia (Feature)

By Robert Carmichael Aug 31, 2010, 6:17 GMT

Phnom Penh - Problem: How to improve rural sanitation in a poor country where just one in seven people has access to a latrine? Solution: Sell unsubsidized toilets.

It sounds like the wrong answer to an important question, but for one non-governmental organization it is working.

The group is IDE Cambodia, whose slogan - 'Fighting Rural Poverty with Profit' - sums up its approach. Since December, IDE has trained more than a dozen entrepreneurs who have gone door-to-door selling 6,000 latrines to villagers in a handful of districts.

Cordell Jacks, a Canadian with a background in finance, runs the project. It began two years ago with a redesign of the standard rural toilet: Three concrete rings dropped in a 2-metre deep pit, with a concrete slab on top, a pan and a few other items.

The EZ Latrine, which recently won an international design award, costs just 35 dollars and is simple to install.

Jacks says IDE's approach is unique: No subsidies. Instead villagers calculate how much time and money they will save by spending 35 dollars on an EZ Latrine.

'In the last nine months it's gone really well,' he says of sales. 'Every single one of those latrines has been completely financed by the household. There's been absolutely no subsidy - not one dollar.'

Most Cambodian villagers use the 'open defecation' method. That simply involves walking out of your home after dark - to preserve your modesty - and finding a suitable patch of ground.

The result is untreated human waste near homes. Illness and death are often not far behind. The lack of rural sanitation is one reason Cambodia's under-five mortality rate is among the highest in Asia.

Dr Chea Samnang heads the department of rural healthcare at the Ministry of Rural Development. It is his job to ensure 30 per cent - or 720,000 rural households - have access to sanitation by 2015.

Five years ago just 16 per cent of rural households were covered. That has reached 23 per cent, and he is confident the 30-per-cent goal will be met. After that the aim is 100-per-cent coverage by 2025.

Chea Samnang says the government's strategy to improve rural hygiene and sanitation involves educating villagers on three key messages using television spots and teams on the ground.

The first is to encourage villagers to build toilets using their own resources. He says every household in a village must have access to a toilet, otherwise the risk of transmittable disease remains.

'The second one is hand-washing with soap after defecation and before eating,' he says. 'And the third message is about safe drinking water at home.'

He says the health of villagers living in 500 villages now classed as free of open defecation has improved since they gained access to toilets.

Two years ago the World Bank said poor hygiene and sanitation cost Cambodia 450 million dollars a year - around 150 dollars per family - in medical costs and days off sick.

The message is simple: Let villagers know how much open defecation costs them, and give them a cheaper alternative. Then use the profit motive to push sales by training local entrepreneurs to make and sell the latrines.

Before the EZ Latrine was launched, the only way to get a similar toilet was to visit the village mason. He provided a list of parts, and the villager headed to the nearest town to buy everything.

It was time-consuming and at up to 200 dollars, expensive. As a result many stuck with open defecation.

Jacks says IDE turned the process on its head. It trained local entrepreneurs - typically small businessmen who manufacture cement products - to make EZ Latrines and take them to the villages.

'Producers will load up their trucks with these latrines, go into villages, market and educate about proper sanitation and hygiene, and sell latrines door to door or at village meetings,' he says.

'It's completely revolutionized sanitation as an industry here,' he adds, explaining that a household can install one in a day.

IDE's self-reliance approach chimes with the government, and the group now works with the ministry. Chea Samnang says once the 2015 target is attained, the government will need to reach two million more households.

Those deemed too poor to afford anything will be helped to build a dry-pit latrine, which costs perhaps three dollars.

'And starting from that, if they understand that it is useful for their family, then we can work with them further to improve their sanitation,' he says.