Kok Benh Village
Global Grant Project Outline
Global Grant Outline
Primary Host Contact is Tityarith Bun of Rotary Club of Sangke Battambang District 3350 Cambodia tityarith3350@gmail.com
Primary International Contact is Tony James Rotary Club of Upper Northern Beaches, District 9685 Sydney, Australia tonyjamesnsw@gmail.com
Project Overview
This grant application is backed by a consortium of 14 Rotary Clubs across seven District that have a shared interest in supporting villages in Cambodia improve their quality of life. The overall objective of both phases of this project is to create a safe and dignified space for women to bath their children and themselves and attend to their sanitary needs concurrent with providing an engineered proper septic tank toilet facility for the whole family - we have called this facility a Washroom Toilet.
Phase 1 To build 100 – 150 washroom toilets in a village with critical needs and villagers trained in the construction skills to build the washroom toilets. This grant application will be led by the Rotary Club of Upper Northern Beaches with financial support from the Rotary Clubs of Mooroopna and Chadstone East Malvern. All clubs in the consortium will provide technical and other support.
Phase 2 Replicate those construction skills of the current village team and transfer those skills to a second team, in a separate village under a separate non-government organisation. Not only will we build additional Washroom Toilets but equally important the transfer of skills to another team will enhance the sustainability of building Washroom Toilets because more Cambodians will have the skills. This intention will be the subject of a separate second grant application with financial support from other Rotary Clubs and Districts. For the first grant application our project is to construct approximately 100 -150 Washroom Toilets in the village of Kok Benh, Siem Reap Province, Cambodia. The Project will involve both construction of Washroom Toilets in full and upgrading existing toilets to Washroom Toilet standard. The number of new and upgrades is unknown at this stage until the construction team and the NGO conduct a survey of the village.
This project arose from a community assessment. These families currently defecate in the open and women attempt to bath behind a cloth screen. High levels of open defecation are linked to high child mortality, poor nutrition, poverty, and large disparities between rich and poor. Bathing in the open results in high levels of sexual and general assaults. The Washroom Toilet is a solution to these issues.
The key features of the community assessment are:
1. Our partner NGO, CCWTP has over 7 years’ experience in consulting with villages – they have built over 500 Washroom toilets in a neighbouring village (Kok Tnoth).
2. Villagers from Kok Benh have heard from their neighbouring villagers about how good the Washroom Toilets are and have inspected the completed Washroom Toilet.
3. CCWTP formal consultative process starts with an approach to the commune chief, then the village chief and other village leaders and engages in numerous conversations around the needs of the village.
4. Drinking water and sanitation are high on the list of village requests for support.
A Washroom Toilet is a basic two tank septic toilet with an enlarged secure above ground structure that is wide enough for women to bath themselves and their children and to attend to their sanitary needs in a dignified and safe place as the structure has a steel framed and lockable door (see Attachment B for detail of the design and functionality of the Washroom Toilet).
Key features of the Washroom Toilet engineering design are:
1. Two tank system.
2. Use of natural bacteria to perform the biochemical breakdown of the waste.
3. Protection of the aquifer through a concrete base in tank no.1 to capture the sludge.
4. Release of clean water through tank no.2.
5. Drain point for removal of waste/sludge if required.
6. Concrete and brick foundation for long life and avoidance of timber rotting if in direct contact with a wet floor.
7. Grab rail for elderly and infirmed.
8. Traditional squat toilet (NOT western design).
9. Brick water tank for water storage for bathing and flushing.
Our NGO partner Cambodia Clean Water and Toilets Project (CCWTP) has had extensive village engagement experience. CCWTP has engaged several local villagers who have been trained up in the construction of Washroom Toilets. To date they have constructed over 500 Washroom Toilets in local villages in the immediate vicinity. At the end of Phases 1 and 2 we will have approximately 350 additional Washroom Toilets and continuation of the sustainable approach of villagers as skill constructors to build more washrooms from different funding sources on an on-going basis beyond this Global Grant Project.
For more information or to participate in a further planned Global Grant
please contact Paul Rake by email