Phang and her family are among 3,000 families with 14,944 people who get drinking water from Preak Tea river in Kratie province, about 250 kilometers northeast of Phnom Penh.

“Water here is a big problem and Preak Tea River is the only one we’ve got that in practice serves as source of life despite all the rubbish and debris that come from the upper north province of Mondulkiri and the neighboring country, Vietnam,” says Loun Ny, 48, mother of Phang who is a community government worker.

Hum Sophon, program director of the Cambodian Red Cross (CRC), says a lack of clean water is apparently the reason why diarrheal diseases, acute respiratory infections (pneumonia), malaria, measles and dengue fever are the most causes of infant and childhood death in Cambodia. The situation is particularly bad in the four remote northeast provinces of Kratie, Mondulkiri, Rotanakiri and Stung Teng where the main sources of drinking water are springs, rivers, streams and rainwater.

Slightly more than one-fifth of under-five children living in the four northeast provinces have water or bloody diarhhea in a given two week period due to a lack of clean water, according to the 2000 Cambodia Demographic and Health Survey. The same survey says more than 50 % of under-five children in these provinces are moderately or severely stunted (with low height for their age), an indication of chronic, incapacitating malnutrition.

“The health status of the Cambodian children is grim. Almost one out of every 10 Cambodian children dies before his or her first birthday,” says Charles Lerman, regional health coordinator of the American Red Cross, which supports the Ceramic Water Filter Project of the Cambodian Red Cross along with the International Development Enterprises and the Freeman Foundation.

The water filter is part of the Community Hygiene and Water Purification project of the Cambodian Red Cross which aims to reduce childhood illness and death from diarrheal disease by providing safe water containers and disseminating health and hygiene messages to the communities.

The project, which distributes one ceramic water filter for each household, has a target of 6,000 households in 53 villages from the 10 districts of the four northeast provinces. This area has a total population of 547,691 people, 100,218 of whom are children below five of age.

The ceramic filter is a clay pot that holds approximately 10 liters, allowing a family to produce 20 to 30 liters per day with two to three fillings. “It is cheap, portable, effective and can be used and maintained even by the poorest families,” says Dr. Lerman.

“The water filter is very convenient, We have stopped boiling water since we started using it three months ago. So far, none of my children has diarrhea or any disease,” says Loun Ny smiling.