A Bit About the Sanitation Here

The other day while out collecting data in Banteay Meanchey, we stopped by a health center out in the villages. After bouncing around on the back of a moped, holding on to my precious data with one hand and holding on to the seat with my other hand as we literally would hit huge bumps and I would fly at least 6 inches out of my seat, I thought my bladder was going to explode. They told me the toilet was around back, but that I may not want to use it because it wasn't very clean. Well, does that tell you anything about the condition of the health centers they have here?? (They only have a couple hospitals here, and then they have small health centers that are out near the rural villages.)Well, the great thing here is that they have squatter toilets or latrines. This may sound awful to many of you, but I actually prefer them in a place where the sanitation is sub par--I can use the restroom without having to touch anything. Except for the bucket I have to use to flush the toilet. And then there is nowhere to wash your hands. A few staple items I take everywhere with me here include: toilet paper, sani wipes, hand sanitizer, and my water bottle with a filter and purifier.

The lack of sanitation facilities and access to clean water is among the worst in Southeast Asia here. Out of a population of about 14,800,000, about 10,000,000 still practice open defecation--meaning they do their business out in fields or rivers. Even those that have toilet facilities often share these with several households in the community. Driving through the villages, I observed several people splashing around in the rivers, bathing, bathing their livestock, and washing their clothes. Many of them also go the bathroom in these rivers. And most of them use this water as their main source of drinking water. In interviewing the women, many of them claim that they boil the water before drinking it, but often times this takes a lot of time, energy, and fuel to do. Let alone having to drink hot water. So many of the people, especially children, drink water that has not been treated.

When interviewing the women here, they all said they wash their hands with soap and water. However, from my observations, I only saw soap at TWO of the households I visited in the villages. Even in my home in Phnom Penh, there is only soap in one of the bathrooms.

The level of cleanliness is something else here. When I go to the provinces, I stay in hotels in the capital city of the province. The bathrooms are never clean. I don't think I've ever seen a clean mirror here. The walls are usually smeared with blood and gecko poop. The floors are wet and dirty. They do provide you with flip flops to wear around the rooms, but I'm certain these have never been cleaned and have been worn by hundreds of dirty feet. Evey day, they hang the linens and towls out along the street in front of the hotels to dry.

Out in the villages, the homes almost all have dirt floors. The babies do not wear diapers. I can't even tell you have many babies I saw pee all over the place. My first experience with this, I was shocked. We were interviewing a lady at a table. Her baby started peeing on the table. She just wiped the urine off the table with her hand and continued on as if it was no big deal, not washing her baby or her own hands.

Additionally, there is no waste disposal service. There is trash everywhere, which is so sad to me. Out in the villages, people just dump trash and waste on the floors of their own homes. The decomposition of this leaves a smelly mess and tons of flies everywhere in the homes. While driving around, it is so bizarre for my coworkers to just throw an empty bottle out the window. One day, while sitting in the office in Pursat, Sophal's pen ran out of ink. So she literally just threw it out the window! No matter what, I will never be able to just throw garbage around.

The homes in the villages have no separate area for their animals. Stray dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, ducks, and cows wander freely through the living areas. Frequently while eating lunch out it in the villages, I have to swat away chickens that are trying to eat my food. And don't get me started on the flies. Even in restaurants, it's common for stray dogs to be wandering through or sleeping at your feet and waiting for any food you might drop.

Additionally, they have no concept of food spoiling. When i go out to villages to work, we always buy lunch on our way out of town to take with us because the conditions get much much worse out in the villages. However, the condition of the street vendors isn't very good to being with. They have pots of food just sitting out, who knows for how long, and flies are swarming everywhere. We buy the food about 7:30 am and eat it at noon, after it's set out all morning. One night, Leak brought leftovers back to the hotel after dinner. She left it out all night on the counter and then ate it for breakfast the next morning. Very few people have refrigerators here. My family has a very small one, but the only thing I've ever seen inside of it are water and some fruit. Leftovers are just left out on the table. I guess without microwaves it's difficult to reheat things.

Just thought I'd share a little bit of what I've observed while here. It's a miracle I haven't gotten sick more than I have. Cambodia obviously has a long way to go to improve their circumstances and greatly reduce the harmful diseases associated with these problems.