Mrs Von Somaly, proud latrine business owner and change-maker in her community

Mrs Van Somaly, with her husband Mr. Ngy Bora and their children are proud of the latrine business they have grown in Cambodia (iDE / Tyler Kozole)

WOMAN-led family water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) businesses in Cambodia are ensuring access to improved sanitation facilities in their communities and helping to build a more sustainable, climate-resilient future for all.

Mrs Von Somaly’s latrine business has flourished over the past 10 years under her leadership and with the support of her husband, Ngy Bora, and Water for Women partner International Development Enterprises (iDE). From selling basic concrete products and latrines in 2011, today the family business has expanded to sell a wide range of building materials and providing household renovation and construction services.

Like 55 percent of latrine businesses in Cambodia, Mrs Somaly is in a decision-making position, managing most of the day-to-day commercial aspects of the business, while Mr Bora focuses on the installation and construction side of operations.

Mrs Somaly has keen commercial acumen and confidently discusses business matters with iDE’s Sanitation Business Advisors, including yearly revenue, business registration, loans, and business plans beyond 2022. “I plan to expand the construction business to keep selling WASH products like toilets. People will always need toilets. There are always new families who will need toilets," she says.

Somaly is among the growing number of women entrepreneurs taking up ownership and leadership roles in WASH businesses in Cambodia. She is not only an inspiration to other women, empowering future generations of women entrepreneurs, but also her to children Dariya and Ranut, who she encourages to get a higher education and a good job like hers when they grow up. Somaly’s next goal is for the family to open a gasoline station for the community.

Today, some 3.6 billion people worldwide live without safely managed sanitation, and around 673 million people still practice open defecation. Safely managed sanitation is crucial in the face of accelerating climate change, with flood, drought, and rising sea levels threatening sanitation systems – from toilets to septic tanks to treatment plants, and placing vital drinking water wells, groundwater, food crops, environments, and community health at risk.

In a changing climate, women sanitation entrepreneurs like Somaly are making critical contributions to their families and communities, while also paving the way for a more equal and sustainable tomorrow. Recognising and valuing the critical contributions of women as decision makers, stakeholders, educators, carers and experts across sectors and at all levels is key to a sustainable, climate-resilient future. Without their voices at the table, this won’t happen.

That is why Australia supports gender equality and social inclusion through Water for Women. In Cambodia, we partner with iDE to deliver the WASH-SUP3 – Cambodia water, sanitation and hygiene scale up program in the six provinces of Svay Rieng, Kandal, Prey Veng, Kampong Thom, Siem Reap and Oddar Meanchey. WASH-SUP3 mitigates climate change through carbon credit sales from the sale of ceramic water filters, which will offset approximately 360,000 tCO2e during the next four and a half years. iDE is also launching new products designed to address specific climate change challenges.