Northeastern Kandal province’s Khsach Kandal district has reportedly achieved 100 per cent open defecation free (ODF) status, amid increasing toilet use and growing awareness of health and hygiene issues.

“Residents of Khsach Kandal district have learned about health and hygiene and have stopped practicing open defecation. All of them have turned to using toilets,” asserted Kandal provincial deputy governor Nuth Puth Dara at an ODF evaluation in the district on January 21.

Although not all households have a toilet, all residents have access to one, Puth Dara maintained, while vaguely ordering local authorities to keep an eye on people living in “floating houses” over water, or others he said may not be able to afford a toilet.

Elaborating on the instruction, he said officials must find NGOs or other partners to provide these vulnerable individuals with toilets, to avoid open defecation and promote hygiene.

Khsach Kandal district governor Bun Pheng said there are more than 30,000 households in the district’s 93 villages, in 18 communes, nearly all of which have individual toilets, with just over 600 households using shared toilets.

Khsach Kandal is north of Lvea Em district, whose westernmost commune of Arey Ksat lies across the Mekong River from Phnom Penh.