Sustainable sanitation for Cambodia’s floating villages

In Cambodia's floating villages along the Mekong, innovative sanitation solutions are essential. With no piped wastewater systems available, one toilet project is helping safeguard health while preserving traditional ways of life. 

Celebrated on 19 November every year, World Toilet Day is about inspiring action to tackle the global sanitation crisis and reach the 3.5 billion people still living without safely managed sanitation. 

To highlight the importance of this work, Source caught up with WaterAid to discuss a unique sanitation context in Cambodia – floating villages with local residents facing major challenges with working sanitation solutions.  

Due to the lack of wastewater disposal systems, waste is often directed from floor openings straight into the river, polluting the same water residents depend on for drinking, hygiene, leisure and fishing. 

WaterAid is currently working to build toilets that can withstand floating conditions with the goal of ensuring the village locals can continue their traditional way of life with access to both clean drinking water and functional toilets.    

WaterAid Regional Technical Lead Fraser Goff said the challenge is certainly dynamic, as not all floating villages are the same.  

“The context is complex. These floating communities are far from uniform; there’s a lot of variation,” he said.  

“In the Prasat commune, about half of the community lives in homes that float year-round, and the other half are in houses that float only during the wet season, when river rises. There are also villages where people live on small boats, making them quite nomadic. 

“Then, we have the overlay of different ethnicities and cultural groups. Some people are stateless, not recognised as Cambodian citizens. We see ethnic Vietnamese and Cham populations, and they often don’t have other housing options, as they can’t buy land. 

“Most of these communities depend heavily on the river for their livelihood – they’re primarily fishermen, but some do small-scale agriculture along the banks. There are also communities with more stable houses built on stilts over the water.  

“These are in areas where seasonal flooding surrounds homes with water for part of the year. They can construct toilets on land because they have the space, but it’s a very different context from the fully floating communities.” 

Floating solutions 

Goff said many houses have toilets that are essentially just holes leading into the river, which poses health concerns due to reliance on the river for drinking and bathing. 

“Some small businesses sell 20-litre refillable bottles of clean water, which is common across Cambodia, but these communities are among the poorest in the country. People often can’t afford to buy clean drinking water, so they’re forced to use the river,” he said. 

“This has obvious health implications, as the rivers are generally polluted. It’s not just local waste; there’s untreated wastewater, industrial effluent and agricultural runoff from further upstream. And this isn’t just Cambodia’s problem; it’s a transboundary issue.” 

WaterAid has addressed wastewater issues before in other parts of Cambodia, but the recent focus of the agency in the past two to three years has been in Kandal Province, which surrounds Phnom Penh.  

“We’ve been working there to make it open defecation-free. When we started in 2020, about 60% of households had toilets. Now, every household not only has a toilet but a good-quality one. We’re also working to ensure everyone has piped water,” Goff said.  

“While working toward these goals, we encountered unique challenges in certain floating communities. The provincial and district leaders were aware that building toilets here is very costly, so we began exploring our options together.” 

“An older option we explored was essentially a floating septic tank, but it was only feasible at the household level and proved too expensive. So, we partnered with a local start-up that had a solution using septic tanks filled with coconut husk fibres.  

“These fibres create an ideal environment for bacteria and algae that break down waste. The company had used these systems in eco-friendly hotels on land, where the tanks are followed by small wetlands to further treat the water.” 

The start-up proposed adapting this model for floating communities and, after a successful pilot, WaterAid scaled up to install four floating toilets, each with men’s and women’s facilities, hand-washing spots, a rain tank and a connection to the on-land water supply. 

“Beneath these facilities are floating plastic tanks filled with coconut fibres, and the wastewater flows out to floating gardens, which further treat the water,” Goff said. 

Working together 

Goff said behaviour change is always the biggest challenge, often more so than building the infrastructure itself – it can be difficult to explain the benefit of changing ways of living. 

“However, in this case, we had strong support from provincial leaders advocating for toilets, which helped. But we’re still working on encouraging financial contributions for maintenance,” he said.  

“People often assume that NGOs will maintain these facilities for free, so fostering a sense of ownership and pride is crucial. 

“But this work has had significant financial support from the provincial government. They matched our funding, which shows a real political commitment to sanitation. It’s rare to see that kind of local investment in sanitation, as it’s usually not a priority. 

“It took years of building leadership and political support to reach this point. The provincial government even funds some of the ongoing operations, which is a big win.” 

Goff said success in this work is about engaging communities and responding to their needs, which is applicable anywhere, even if the specifics differ.  

“The importance of working with communities on sustainable sanitation solutions can’t be overstated, whether communities are floating or not,” he said. 

Image: Chamnan, 10, on the Basac river in Saang District, Cambodia, Feb 2023 (Credit: WaterAid/Tariq Hawari)