
25 years ago, the typical person in Cambodia got nasty diarrhea every year, due to contaminated water, such as drinking water with traces of human poop in it. But since then, diarrhea rates have fallen a lot. For children, the prevalence of diarrhea fell to “19.7% in 2005 to 15.0% in 2010 to 12.9%% in 2014 and 6.2% in 2022.”
A big factor in this is that most Cambodians now have access to clean water, unlike in 2000. The Khmer Times reports that “as of 2024, 87% of the population had access to basic clean water, while safely managed water services reached 21%. For sanitation, 92% of the population benefitted from basic facilities, with 51% having access to safely managed sanitation services.”
Cambodia’s minister of rural development “highlighted the importance of eliminating open defecation in the remaining provinces this year and called for updating technical standards for water and sanitation infrastructure. Public awareness campaigns, including the production of educational videos, were also identified as a priority to encourage hygienic practices and the use of clean water.”
Huge numbers of Cambodian children used to die, mostly from severe diarrhea, back in 2000. But that child death rate has fallen by about 90% since 2000: “the under-five mortality rate” in “Cambodia has decreased from 124 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2000 to 16 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2022,” notes a health sciences journal.
As of 2018, diarrhea was “the most common cause of death in Cambodian children,” notes an article in the National Library of Medicine:
Globally, 88% of diarrhea cases are attributable to poor water, poor sanitation or poor hygiene 3 . Childhood diarrhea is associated with multiple factors, including unimproved drinking water sources 4– 7 , untreated water 8– 10 , unimproved toilet facilities 6, 8, 9, 11 , unhygienic disposal of children’s stools 12– 14 , lack of hand washing facilities 15, 16 , type and location of residence 11, 16 , the child’s age 4, 13, 16 , the child’s sex (male) 13 , maternal illiteracy 12, 13, 17 , the mother’s occupation 9, 12 , maternal age 14, 18 , wealth index 4, 19 , and whether or not the child is breastfed 10, 15 .
In 2014, Cambodia still had one of the highest prevalence levels of diarrhea among children under the age of five amongst countries in South-East Asia, at 12.8% 20 . By comparison, Myanmar had a prevalence of 10.4% in 2015–16 21 , Malaysia 4.4% in 2016 7 , Laos 6.5% in 2017 22 , Philippines 6.1% in 2017 23 , and Indonesia 14.1% in 2017 24 . According to a 2014 report from UNICEF Cambodia, diarrhea alone accounted for one fifth of the deaths of children under the age of five in Cambodia, and an estimated 10,000 deaths overall each year 25 . However, according to a 2018 report from UNICEF, in 2016, Cambodia had 5,947 total neonatal deaths, of which 20 were due to diarrhea; 5,248 post-neonatal deaths, of which 672 were due to diarrhea (13%); and 692 deaths of children under five due to diarrhea (6%) 26 . This demonstrates that diarrhea is the most common cause of death in Cambodian children.