A4 MEDIA RELEASE English

MEDIA ADVISORY

3 August 2006 PR/2006-12

Kampong Speu Village to Celebrate Total Sanitation Achievement

WHAT: Celebration of achieving 100 per cent latrine coverage (UNICEF will provide transport to journalists who wish to cover the event)

WHO: Dr. Chea Samnang, Director, Department of Rural Health Care, Ministry of Rural Development; Mr. Tomoo Hozumi, UNICEF Officer-in-Charge Mr Chan Ngorn, Sleng Village Chief; Ms. Hilda Winarta, UNICEF Water and Sanitation Officer; and Sleng villagers

WHERE: Sleng Village, Mohasang Commune, Phnum Sruich District, Kampong Speu Province

WHEN: Saturday, 5 August 2006, 8:30 am

WHY: Sleng has achieved total sanitation and become a model of good hygiene to its neighboring villages following the construction of low-cost latrines by all 94 families in the village. They are among the first few villages to reach full sanitation in Cambodia which has been rated among the countries with the lowest sanitation coverage in the world. This achievement of the community in Sleng village is even more meaningful since it has been attained without any material subsidies from the Government or donors. UNICEF assisted the Ministry of Rural Development in piloting the community-led total sanitation project in Sleng village in Kampong Speu in September 2005 to completely eliminate the habit of open defecation. From only two families who had built their latrines at the beginning of the project, their number grew to 90 families at the end of December. By 4 June 2006, the last four families eventually built their own latrines. With only encouragement and motivation from the Ministry and its provincial department, and a sense of disgust and shame elicited by the project, Sleng villagers have proved that a community is capable of taking the initiatives and leadership to improve their sanitation situation.

In Cambodia, only 16 percent of the population in rural area has access to a clean, private place to defecate and urinate. Before the pilot, Sleng villagers deposited almost one ton of faeces each week in the open field exposing its inhabitants to viruses and bacteria that can cause diseases particularly diarrhoea. Diarrhoea which kills millions of children in the world every year is also a major cause of child malnutrition in Cambodia.

The community-led total sanitation project was pioneered in Bangladesh in 1999 and has been widely adopted in Asia and Africa. It is an innovative way of mobilizing communities to completely eliminate open defecation through participatory facilitation, community analysis and action, and no hardware subsidy. In Cambodia, UNICEF supports capacity-building of the Ministry of Rural Development and its provincial departments in promoting community-based rural sanitation improvement. This year, 53 villages in six UNICEF-supported provinces are implementing the community-led total sanitation project. United Nations Children’s Fund Telephone 855-23-426-214/5 Cambodia Country Office Facsimile 855-23-426-284 No. 11, Street 75 [email protected] P.O. Box 176 www.unicef.org Phnom Penh, Cambodia MEDIA ADVISORY

* * * * For further information, please contact: Cecilia Dy: (+855 23) 426214 ext 201, 012 621 701 [email protected] Santepheap Heng: (+855 23) 426214 ext 201, 016 567 374 [email protected]

United Nations Children’s Fund Telephone 855-23-426-214/5 Cambodia Country Office Facsimile 855-23-426-284 No. 11, Street 75 [email protected] P.O. Box 176 www.unicef.org Phnom Penh, Cambodia