Almost 40% of Lao people do not have access to clean water, and less than 43% enjoy proper sanitation systems, according to a Lao Health Ministry report that says only 14% of the nation’s schools have proper restrooms.
The above-said conditions increase the risks of children contracting contagious diseases, shortening their life expectency which is very short already. Lao children under the age of 5 die at the rate of 170 per 100,000 every year. That rate increases to over 580 per 100,000 in some remote villages.