Climate Crisis Impacts Sanitation Access in Rural Cambodia

As Earth heats up, natural disasters such as floods, cyclones, and droughts are becoming more common in rural Cambodia, leading to unsanitary living conditions.

A team of scientists studied how the climate crisis is impacting household sanitation access and practices across six rural Cambodian provinces. An often overlooked issue caused by the increasing frequency of extreme weather is that latrine systems are more likely to malfunction, leaving people with no other option but to take care of business outdoors, as the team explained in an article on The Conversation.

For its research, the team wanted to examine what caused people to abandon sanitary toilet practices and how various weather events impacted toilet system performance. Researchers looked at sanitation behavior surveys distributed to nearly 200,000 households from 2013 to 2020 that asked questions about toilet access and household income.

The main takeaway from the findings, published in Environment, Development, and Sustainability, was that residents were more likely to abandon pit toilets in areas more heavily impacted by floods and storms.

"Toilet dysfunction, which temporarily prevents a toilet from flushing or from keeping human waste from entering the environment, is more frequent among households living in flood-prone regions during the rainy season," the authors wrote. "This is a major contamination risk to water sources and the environment, increasing the risk of sickness."

No one can ignore the call of nature, but not everyone has access to basic sanitation services. According to the World Health Organization, more than 1.5 billion people worldwide live in areas without private toilets, so many are forced to "go" in waterways or other outdoor locations.

If wastewater is discharged into the environment before it's treated, it can contaminate food and drinking water and spread severe diarrheal illnesses -- including cholera and dysentery -- and tropical diseases. The WHO stated that poor sanitation is the direct cause of 564,000 deaths globally each year, most of which occur in low- and middle-income countries.

While nonprofit organizations such as iDE are working to ensure rural communities have access to latrines and proper sanitation, the uptick in natural disasters fueled by rising temperatures threatens to undo the progress made in lower-income nations. As The Conversation explained, seasonal flooding in Cambodia has worsened in recent years, putting more strain on sanitation systems.

If rural communities aren't presented with better products or methods to practice safe hygiene in the face of climate disruptions, they will likely have to relieve themselves outdoors, putting their health and the environment in jeopardy.

The study authors said that iDE has helped with the sale of over 411,000 pour-flush latrines throughout nine Cambodian provinces since 2009, per The Conversation. Open defecation has now been eliminated in five provinces thanks to improved sanitation.

However, because of increasing climate shocks, further efforts are necessary to make sanitation systems more resilient and ensure communities know how to maintain toilets safely.

"We are keen to form more partnerships to continue to study what difference other factors make when it comes to encouraging safe and sanitary toilet practices," the authors explained.

When parts of Nigeria experienced a cholera outbreak following several rounds of severe flooding, a response team was formed to contain the spread and improve sanitation across the country. However, the best way to prevent deadly bacterial diseases is to improve toilet access in rural locations, which improves residents' overall well-being and the health of the environment.

If you'd like to help, consider volunteering with organizations that are working to better living conditions for rural communities or donating to charities that are involved in these efforts.