Delivering 400,000 Latrines To Households In Rural Cambodia

Some 400,000 toilets and growing! As of April 2022, iDE Cambodia’s Sanitation Marketing program has achieved an exciting milestone—the sale and delivery of 400,000 affordable sanitary latrines to rural households who previously had no access to basic sanitation.

The delivery of sanitation products at this scale in just over a decade would not have been possible without iDE’s market-based approach. By partnering with the local private sector, and developing a robust supply chain, we’ve been able to reach nearly 1.9 million rural Cambodians. This is equal to more than 12 percent of the Cambodian population or more than one-third of the population in the seven provinces where the program has operated. 

The program has steadily surpassed expectations since 2009, and was the first market-based sanitation program to reach this level of scale in the Global South. Other private, public, and NGO actors, taking advantage of the new marketplace, have also stepped in to sell toilets, contributing to an increase in sanitation coverage from 23 percent to 80 percent in program areas. 

Moving forward, iDE will continue its efforts in building a sustainable and climate resilient sanitation market to achieve safely managed sanitation and leave no one behind in rural Cambodia.

Thank you and congratulations to all iDE Cambodia staff, local partners, donors—and most of all—the rural Cambodian entrepreneurs and their customers, who have put in the hard work of building this market for the good of everyone.

Donor Acknowledgements: This milestone was made possible in part by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development, the Australian Government’s Water for Women Fund, Stone Family Foundation, and UNICEF.