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The Solana Beach ECO Rotary Club (ECO) and the Cache Valley Morning Rotary Club (CVM) are cooperatively planning a Sanitation Project designed to build fifteen latrines for poor Cambodia rural families in the Kos Khel region, where decent toilet facilities are big issues. ECO Rotary will be manage the project through a partner NGO in Cambodia, Solidarity Fund For Rural Development (SFRD), which to date has constructed 33 latrines (photos of some of their previously completed latrines are included in this application). The project will be funded with $2,000 from CVM Rotary, $600 from the ECO Rotary and $600 from a District 5340 matching grant. The latrines are a "double-pit" system with an attached ceramic squatting base surrounded by a simple enclosure. The latrines will be constructed over a period of two months with the help of the families receiving the latrine. New this year, for each latrine, will be the addition of a soap hand washing station, the Tippy-tap (sample design attached). It's designed as a very inexpensive way to provide "running water" for the washing of hands. Education materials will be provided on proper hygiene and the importance of hand washing with a "running water" system.
Promoting good health in Cambodia is an important undertaking. Good sanitation is essential for health and well being, but it's not the norm in rural Cambodia, where old habits of poor hygiene are still wide spread. Open fields are still used for elimination of body waste, and hand washing (mostly not done at all) would be with a basin of water, which tends to spread germs from one person to another. The result is the contamination of streams and soils, the spread of disease, high rates of infant and young child mortality, and heavy caseloads of diarrhea and other infections. According to the World Bank's Sanitation program (2008) and by other studies, only about 17% of Cambodian rural poor have access to improved facilities, and among the very poor, fewer than 5% have access to a decent toilet facility.
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