Improving Sanitation – and Health – in Cambodia

In Cambodia, poverty, a lack of infrastructure, and a long standing practice of open defecation all contribute to poor sanitation. In areas where people go to the bathroom in the open, contact with feces can result in illnesses being easily transmitted through what is known as the four “Fs”: food, fingers, flies, and fields. The most common condition is diarrhea, which still causes more deaths in children under the age of 5 than HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, combined.

Even when death isn’t an outcome, repeated bouts of diarrhea at a young age can often lead to malnutrition and stunted growth. In addition, when children miss school and adults miss work due to sickness, economic opportunities are often lost.

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