Project aims to build latrines in rural areas

A new US$10.9 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will fund a three-year project by international development NGO East Meets West (EMW) to improve sanitation and hygiene among the poor in rural Cambodia and Vietnam. According to EMW, the program seeks to combat the negative effects of open defecation and poor hygiene by financing the construction of latrines and hand-washing devices and by offering community-based hygiene education. The need for such a program is dire in a country where about 80 per cent of households have no sanitation facilities, leading to thousands of deaths each year, EMW said in a statement. … Partners for the project in Cambodia include the Cambodian Women for Peace and Development, Kampot Province’s Department of Rural Development and the Ministry of Rural Development. …

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012082058164/National-news/new-latrines-granted-in-rural-areas.html