A public toilet in Preah Sihanouk province which open to the public earlier this year. PREAH SIHANOUK ADMINISTRATION
The Ministry of Rural Development has laid out the second phase of plans to reach Open Defecation Free (ODF) status in five provinces by 2023, with ODF hoped to be fully achieved in Cambodia by 2025.
Chreay Pom, head of the ministry’s General Department of Technical Affairs, told The Post on April 7 that the ministry has been implementing the second phase of the 2019-2023 National Action Plan to achieve 90 per cent of ODF by 2023. He said the Kingdom has so far reached “almost 80 per cent” of its target.
He added that, under the guidance of the ministry, five provinces – Kep, Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Speu, Svay Rieng and Prey Veng – are poised to achieve ODF status by 2023.
Pom said that plans to end open defecation would reduce its negative impact on public health, education and tourism. Studies show that each year, Cambodia loses $477 million on public health issues caused by the act, largely brought upon by the lack of proper sanitation facilities.
Yi Kim Than, deputy country director for programmes at public health NGO Plan International Cambodia, said such behaviour “seriously affects” children’s health as it results in diarrhoea and other diseases. He said the organisation had supported and participated in a recent sub-national summit on accelerating the cessation of open defecation in the Kingdom.
Faeces in improper areas will flow into drinking water supply, Than said, causing children’s growth to be stunted while also affecting neural development.
“We support [the ODF plan] because it is in line with PIC’s direction and strategy for the next five years, which focuses on a healthy start. So, the work on ODF is a priority one for us,” he said.
Figures from the Cambodian Socio-Economic Survey show that by the third quarter of 2021, 77.2 per cent of the rural population across the country had access to toilets, while about 73.4 per cent of them had access to safe drinking water.
From 2017 to 2019, the rate of access to sanitation increased from 70.9 per cent to 74.2 per cent. By 2021, 77.2 per cent of the rural population had access to toilets.
